A study of SAPO-11 synthesis using typical compositions of starting gel with low times of crystallization and gels with low proportion of template was carried out. The results show that it is possible to obtain SAPO-11 at short times of crystallization (4 h) with high purity and crystallinity. By decreasing the amount of template of 1-0.3 mol DPA/mol Al2O3, it is necessary to change the sources of aluminium and silicon, time and the temperature of crystallization to obtain the phase SAPO-11. In the transformation of 1-butene, a similar behaviour was obtained for SAPO-11 synthesized in the best conditions determined. In the transformation of n-pentane over SAPO-11 impregnated with platinum, the best performance was achieved with SAPO-11 obtained at 4 h of crystallization under typical synthesis conditions. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.