Ordered mesoporous carbon-niobium oxide composites have been synthesized by a multi-component co-assembly method associated with a carbonization process using phenolic resol as carbon source, niobium chloride as precursor and amphiphilic triblock copolymer Pluronic F127 as template. The resulting materials were characterized using a combination of techniques including differential scanning calorimetry-thermogravimetric analysis, N-2 physical adsorption, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results show that with increasing the content of Nb2O5 from 38 to 75% the specific surface area decreases from 306.4 to 124.5 m(2) g(-1), while the ordered mesoporous structure is remained. Niobium species is well dispersed in the amorphous carbon framework. The mesoporous carbon-niobium oxide composites exhibit high catalytic activity in the dehydration of fructose to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural. A 100% conversion of fructose and a 76.5% selectivity of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural were obtained over the carbon-niobium oxide composite containing 75% Nb2O5 under the investigated reaction conditions. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.