Zirconium was successfully incorporated into cubic KIT-5 mesoporous silicate by direct hydrothermal synthesis employing F127 triblock copolymer as the structure-directing agent. The Zr-KIT-5 materials exhibit relatively high specific surface area (similar to 1000 m(2)/g) and pore volumes (0.7-0.8 cm(3)/g), with an average cage diameter of approximately 8.8 nm as evidenced from N-2 sorption and HR-TEM results. Diffuse reflectance UV-Vis spectroscopy and XPS studies reveal framework Zr4+ species that result in the formation of predominantly Lewis acid sites and some Bronsted acid sites, both of which increase with Zr content. The Zr-KIT-5 materials are shown to be highly active and stable catalysts for anisole benzylation with benzyl alcohol (BzOH) forming monobenzylated products (mainly ortho- and para-). It is shown that the benzylation activity depends mainly on the number and nature of the acid sites. Zr-KIT-5 material is thus a promising and environmentally benign Friedel-Crafts alkylation catalyst with many potential applications. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.