Wormlike micelles as a template for polymerization

The use of self-assembled materials as templates and structure-control agents in materials synthesis is both common and a rapidly growing area. However, the subset of work that focuses on cylindrical, rodlike and wormlike self-assembled micelles is under-utilized given the potential of these materials for synthesizing anisotropic materials. In recent years, there has been progress in polymerization of wormlike micelle systems at different length-scales and in the use of wormlike micelles as templates to control the morphology of materials grown in or around the aggregates. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.