A heterogeneous catalyst, MCM-41-Ni, was synthesized by anchoring a nickel(II) Schiff base complex onto amino-modified MCM-41. The catalyst was characterized by small angle X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption, infrared spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, inductively coupled plasma and C, H, N elemental analysis, and transmission electron microscopy. MCM-41-Ni showed excellent catalytic activity for the epoxidation of styrene with O-2 as oxidant with high styrene conversion (95.2%) and epoxide selectivity (66.7%). The influence of reaction temperature, catalyst amount, solvent, and reaction time was studied. MCM-41-Ni showed good recyclability and can be reused four times. (C) 2013, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.