A highly ordered mesoporous carbon (C-SBA-15 and C-SBA-16) was synthesized by nanocasting method using its corresponding mesoporous silica (SBA-15 and SBA-16) as a template. The obtained porous carbons have high surface areas, large pore volume and a narrow pore size distribution. The N(2)-adsorption data for C-SBA-15 have provided the BET area of 2029 m(2) g(-1) and the total pore volume of 1.7 cm(3) g(-1), and 1637 m(2) g(-1) and 1.1 cm(3) g(-1) for C-SBA-16, respectively. The palladium metal impregnated carbon catalysts were employed in the synthesis of (S)-3-pyrrolidinol from chiral (S)-4-chloro-3-hydroxybutyronitrile, and a high yield to (S)-3-pyrrolidinol-salt was obtained by using 1 wt% Pd/C-SBA-16. It was investigated that the well-dispersed Pd metals in the confined mesopores are efficient for the hydrogenation of cyano groups to amine. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.