Abstract The effects of various alkali metal hydroxide mineralizers (LiOH, NaOH, KOH and CsOH) on the formation of AlMCM-41 mesoporous materials were investigated. The ordering of mesostructure was reduced when stronger base was used which led to the reduction of the porosity and surface area of the solids. The pore size was significantly affected upon changing the mineralizers and a significant morphological transformation of worm-like particles into hollow nanospheres with ultra-thin wall was observed. Furthermore, the basicity of the mesoporous solids was also changed when stronger basic mineralizers were employed. Lastly, the catalytic behavior of these AlMCM-41 molecular sieves in base-catalyzed aldol condensation of heptanal with benzaldehyde under non-microwave instant heating was also tested and discussed.