Mesoporous sodalite was prepared using a bridged polysilsesquioxane monomer as the mesoporogen in the presence of chloride-containing salts (NaCl, KCl, and NH 4 Cl), and characterized using different analytical techniques. As the amount of organosiloxane increased in the synthetic mixture, the total BET surface areas of samples initially increased and then decreased. When 6 ml mesoporogen was added, the prepared sodalite sample showed the largest external BET surface area of 179 m 2 /g. Meanwhile, the addition of salts promoted crystallization, and the sodalite surface area reached 295 m 2 /g, making its skeletal framework more regular and weakening the template effect. Furthermore, mesoporous sodalite samples were used to evaluate the alkali catalytic performance of 1,3-dichloropropanol during the preparation of epichlorohydrin. The results showed that a larger surface area and pore volume were beneficial to the conversion and selectivity of this reaction. • A lab-made soft template was successfully introduced to produce mesoporous sodalite. • A suitable amount of inorganic salts can improve the skeleton stability of the samples. • Stable skeleton structure is beneficial to ion exchange and hydrothermal stability. • Larger surface area and pore size improve conversion and selectivity of the reaction.