Polymerization of supramolecular assemblies: Comparison of lamellar and inverted hexagonal phases

Abstract Since the first reports of the polymerization of hydrated bilayers in the early 1980s, a wide variety of polymerizable groups and lipids has been successfully employed. Among the various strategies explored for the polymerization of lamellar phases, a particularly useful method relies on the design of suitable polymerizable amphiphiles, which upon hydration form assemblies that can then be polymerized with retention of structure. We have recently extended this strategy to successfully polymerize the inverted hexagonal (H II ) phase. This report is the first comparison of radical chain polymerizations in lamellar and H II phases. The number average degree of polymerization of polymers obtained in both lamellar and H II phases depended strongly on the initiation chemistry, but were insensitive to the lipid phases. The immediate benefit of these studies is the knowledge that polymer size can be varied extensively in both phases in order to obtain different materials properties.