The synthesis of new ordered mesoporous adsorbents, specifically of the MCM
-41 type, involves a step of thermal elimination of the template (a surfact
ant) where CRTA is shown to provide a 'soft chemistry' route. Once the meso
porous (i.e. 2 to 50 nm pore width) material is obtained, the pore size is
determined by thermoporometry, a convenient application for low temperature
DSC. Finally, the hydrophobic - hydrophilic properties of the pore walls a
re explored by immersion microcalorimetry in water.