Using a hydroxyl group appended free base porphyrin derivative (HP), porphyrin-introduced silica gels were synthesized by a sol-gel process. The HP content in the materials linearly increased with increasing the HIP concentration. Meanwhile, free base tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) with no hydroxyl groups were almost not incorporated into the silica gels. These facts suggested that the interaction between hydroxyl groups of the HP molecules and silica network is considerably strong. The UV-vis characters of HP-introduced materials were almost the same as pure HP molecules. The Beer's plot indicated that the HP molecules in the materials are dispersed. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.