A series of mesoporous Cu-ZrPO (M-Cu-ZrPO) materials with high specific surface area (～200 m² g^_1), large pore volume (～0.4 cm³ g^_1), uniform pore size (～7.8 nm) and various copper contents in a wide range (0–40%) were successfully synthesized via a facile one-pot evaporation induced self-assembly (EISA) strategy. Different characterization techniques, XRD, N₂-physisorption, TEM, TG-DSC, UV–vis spectra and H₂-TPR were employed to investigate the mesoporous structure and copper states. The ordered mesostructure was improved with the introduction of copper species and could be successfully maintained even at a copper content up to 30%, in which the copper species were highly dispersed in the skeleton of mesostructure. Additionally, M-Cu-ZrPO exhibited excellent thermal stability and the ordered mesostructure could be successfully preserved even after treating at 700 ℃. Moreover, M-Cu-ZrPO was employed as catalyst for liquid phase oxidation of ethylbenzene. On account of the advantageous mesoporous structure and highly dispersed copper species, the catalytic performance of M-Cu-ZrPO was gradually improved with the increasing of copper contents and achieved the maximum at 30% copper content with 91.2% conversion of ethylbenzene and 87.0% selectivity of acetophenone. In addition, M-Cu-ZrPO showed excellent stability and reusability even after five cycles.