Well ordered FSM-16 mesoporous material was synthesized by using established procedures. Mo, CoMo, NiMo catalysts were prepared using this FSM-16 mesoporous material as support. The support and the catalysts were characterized by XRD, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) pore size distribution measurements. The XRD, TEM and pore size distributions indicated that the ordered mesoporous structure is obtained and retained after Mo and Co(Ni) additions. The wide angle XRD measurement indicated that molybdenum is highly dispersed up to 12 wt.% Mo loading. The surface area analysis indicated that molybdenum is highly dispersed as monolayer 12 wt.% Mo zero point charge (ZPC) and XRD measurements confirmed the same. The oxygen chemisorption measurements indicated that the higher dispersion in the oxide state is carried into sulfided state also. The thiophene HDS, cyclohexene hydrogenation and cumene cracking activities all showed that maximum activity is obtained at 12 wt.% Mo loading. Excellent correlations are obtained between oxygen uptakes and catalytic activities. These studies indicated that MoS2 phase has significant cracking functionality. The correlations with catalytic functionalities are discussed in the light of characterization results. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.