Organic structure-directing agents (OSDAs), such as quaternary ammonium cations and amines,u sed in the synthesis of zeolites and related crystalline microporous oxides usually end up entrapped inside the void spaces of the crystallized inorganic host lattice.B ut none of them is known to form direct chemical bonds to the framework of these industrially important catalysts and adsorbents.W ed emonstrate that ECR-40, currently regarded as at ypical silicoaluminophosphate molecular sieve,c onstitutes instead an ew family of inorganic-organic hybrid networks in whicht he OSDAs are covalentlyb onded to the inorganic framework. ECR-40 crystallization begins with the formation of an Al-OSDAc omplex in the liquid phase in which the Al is octahedrally coordinated. This unit is incorporated in the crystallizing ECR-40. Subsequent removal of frameworkbound OSDAs generates Al-O-Al linkages in af ully tetrahedrally coordinated framework.The synthesis of inorganic-organic hybrid molecular sieves with organic moieties incorporated into the porous inorganic framework is of great interest [1] because it is one effective way of utilizing the organic functionality as anew catalytic and/or adsorption site,a sw ell as of modifying the internal surface selectivity of zeolitic materials with three-dimensional (3D) frameworks made up of four-connected networks of atoms (Si, Al, P, Ga, Ge,e tc.)b ridged by oxygen atoms.T he strategies developed to date,i nt he search for such hybrid solids,i nvolve either the direct synthesis using organosilanes containing organic functional groups as a( partial) silica source and alkylammonium-boundo rganosilanes as structure-directing agents, [2] or the post-synthetic treatment using similar organosilane species as pillaring or silylating agents. [3] Thus,t hey rely on the use of organic species which already contain an atom susceptible of incorporation as atetrahedral atom (T-atom) in the zeolitic framework.Thes ynthesis of ECR-40, first reported as as ilicoaluminophosphate (SAPO) molecular sieve with the MEI topology in 1999, includes the use of either tris(2-hydroxyethyl)methylammonium (THMA + )orbis(2-hydroxyethyl)dimethylammonium (BHDMA + )i ons as organic structure-directing agents (OSDAs). [4] Our interest in this material began with the unexpected gauche conformation of (2-hydroxyethyl)trimethylammonium (HTMA + )i ons within as-made UZM-22, an MEI-type aluminosilicate zeolite, [5] stabilized by one intramolecular hydrogen bond between the oxygen atom of its OH group and the hydrogens of carbon atoms linked to the charged nitrogen center. [6] Like HTMA + ,b oth THMA + and BHDMA + contain polar OH groups which can participate not only in intramolecular CÀH···O hydrogen bonding,b ut also in intermolecular hydrogen bonding to the other OSDA molecules or to the molecular sieve framework. Moreover, ECR-40 was deemed to be isostructural with ZSM-18, the type material for MEI, containing odd-membered rings,such as 5-rings,w hich are usually absent in tetrahedral aluminophosphate-based frameworks [7...