cured at ambient temperature for 5 days in the open air. Then the entrapped ionic liquid was Soxhlet-extracted with water for 4 days and the product, MCXMS, was dried through freeze-drying. For comparison, the MCXadsorbed mesoporous silica (MCX-MSA) was prepared as follows. The MS was added in the same amount of the MCX methanol solution as above and stirred for 1 day at room temperature. MCX-MSA was then obtained by filtration, washing with methanol and freeze-drying.