A simple acid-base bifunctionalized approach has been developed through grinding the precursors, magnesium and aluminium nitrates, with the as-prepared SBA-15, and then the generation of acid-base active sites and removal of host template were combined into a single step in the subsequent calcination procedure. A series of acid-base bifunctional mesoporous materials MgO-Al2O3-SBA-15 (MA-SBA-15) have been successfully synthesized by means of this approach. X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopes (HRTEMs), N-2 adsorption, FT-IR spectra, Al-27 and Si-29 magic-angle-spinning (MAS) NMR, NH3- and CO2-temperature programmed desorption (TPD), pyridine adsorption were employed to characterize the resultant mesoporous materials. The results indicate that the guests can be well dispersed in the channel of SBA-15, and the resultant materials exhibit excellent acid-basic properties with well mesoporous backbone, which make it possessing high activity for the synthesis of ethyl methyl carbonate, an important asymmetric carbonate ester compound. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.