Since the discovery of the mesoporous silicas MCM-41 [1] and FSM-16 [2] derived from their surfactant mesocomposites, increasing attention has focused on the synthesis of mesoporous materials by the template method. Mesostructured silicas with surface-modified mesopores have large internal surface areas and narrow pore size distributions, and are effective catalysts and molecular sieves.[3] Mesoporous transition metal oxides are promising not only as catalysts and molecular sieves but also as highly functional materials with shape-specific and/or quantum effects characteristic of their ordered inorganic skeletons. Antonelli et al. [4] and Sun et al. [5] synthesized various micro-and mesoporous transition metal oxides such as niobium and tantalum oxides by the ligand-assisted liquid crystal template method with neutral primary amines. Layered [6] and hexagonal [7] mesostructured titanium oxides were found to be photocatalytically active.Rare earth oxides and mixed oxides are useful as materials with luminescent, catalytic, electric, and magnetic properties that result from their 4f electrons. Rare earth garnets are applicable as bubble memory materials owing to their small magnetic domains with up or down spins. If such rare earth oxides were obtainable as mesoporous solids, they would be promising as adsorbents or separating agents with a combination of shape-or size-selectivity and magnetic properties. They could also act as electrically, magnetically, or optically functional host materials. We have reported the synthesis of a series of mesostructured metal oxides and demonstrated that the homogeneous precipitation method with urea is effective for the synthesis of aluminum-, gallium-, and yttrium-based dodecyl sulfate mesophases in which layered and hexagonal structures are templated by alkyl sulfate assemblies.[8±13] The hexagonal yttrium-based mesophase was converted into a mesoporous material with a specific surface area of 545 m 2 g À1 by anion exchange of the surfactant with acetate ions, although the Al-and Ga-based analogues collapsed on the removal of surfactants. [13] However, the introduction of yttrium species into the inorganic framework of Al-and Gabased mesophases yielded highly ordered mesoporous Al ± Y and Ga ± Y mixed oxides with specific surface areas of 798 and 714 m 2 g À1 , respectively. [14,15] Here we report on the first synthesis and characterization of mesoporous rare earth oxides, as well as their anomalous magnetic properties.The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of the solid erbiumbased mesophase isolated after a reaction time t of 3 h (see Kurtz [12] P,P-Diphenylphosphinic amide (0.22 g, 1.0 mmol) was placed in a flame-dried 25-mL test tube and dissolved in CH 2 Cl 2 (4.4 mL). To the solution was added benzaldehyde (0.20 mL, 2.0 mmol) and triethylamine (0.42 mL, 3.0 mmol), and then the mixture was cooled with an ice-water bath. A solution of TiCl 4 in CH 2 Cl 2 (1.0 m, 0.55 mL) was added dropwise to the cooled mixture (over ca. 5 min). After the removal of the ice-water bath, the m...