The development of nanostructured polymers has recently been of great interest because of their potential to improve many applications including electronic and biomedical devices. A promising new method of synthesis involves templating the nanostructure of lyotropic liquid crystalline (LLC) phases onto organic polymers utilizing photopolymerization. The polymerization of a wide variety of monomers in LLC media has been accomplished with full retention of the LLC phase in the final polymer structure. The polymerization kinetics of many monomer/LLC systems has also been investigated. These studies have revealed the roles of the monomer and liquid crystal components in the structure development of the resulting polymers. The solubility and chemical structure of the photoinitiator are other important variables influencing the structure and properties of templated polymers. However, little is understood about the role of the photoinitiator in polymerizations occurring in ordered LLC environments.
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