The hydrothermal genesis of AlPO4-5, in the presence of four different organic templates, viz., methyldicyclohexylamine (MCHA), triethylamine (TEA), tripropylamine (TPA), and tetraethylammonium hydroxide (TEAOH), has been monitored by XRD. It is shown that TEAOH has the best templating ability to the formation of AlPO4-5 structure under the different synthesis conditions considered in this study. Density functional calculations on periodic models of AIPO(4)-5 indicate the strongest nonbonding interaction energy between the template and the framework in the case of TEAOH. Therefore, a new approach correlating the nonbonding interaction energy to the template ability to form a porous structure is proposed as a step toward a better understanding of the role of the organic template in the synthesis of porous molecular sieves.(c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.