His main research field is nanoporous materials chemistry. Most remarkable achievements of his are the syntheses of mesoporous carbon materials called CMK-n (meaning Carbon Mesostructured at KAIST – No. n) and mesoporous zeolites. The mesoporous carbons are built by regular arrangement of uniform mesopores. Due to the ordered arrangement of the controllable mesopore diameters, the CMK-n materials can be characterized by X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. This unique characteristic is a great advantage in nanoporous carbon science, where various physicochemical properties, such as electrocatalytic activity and adsorption ability, need to be explored as a function of the pore diameters and connectivity. On the other hand, the mesoporous zeolite is a mesoporous material in which the mesopore walls are built with microporous crystalline zeolite framework. Compared to the solely microporous conventional zeolite, the mesoporous zeolite (also called zeolite with mesopore-micropore hierarchy, or hierarchical zeolite) has the advantage of facile diffusion of reactants and products. This can lead to a significant increase in catalytic selectivity and lifetime when applied to petrochemical processes. The mesoporous zeolite is expected to be a key component for the future development of advanced catalytic processes, in order to decrease pollutants generation and energy consumption.