Isothermal phase diagrams of the system cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)/n-butanol/n-octane/water were constructed, and the effect of the oil (noctane) contents on the microemulsions was studied at 40 degreesC. We determined the microemulsion structures of two systems, CTAB/n-butanol/10% n-octane/water and sodium dodecyl sulfonate (As)/n-butanol/20% styrene/water, by conductivity measurements to investigate the polymerization of acrylamide and styrene in the two microemulsion systems. The polymerization kinetics of the water-soluble monomer acrylamide in CTAB micelles and the different CTAB/n-butanol/10% n-octane/water microemulsion media [water-in-oil (W/O), bicontinuous (BC), and oil-in-water (OW)] were studied with water-soluble sodium bisulfite as the initiator. The maximum polymerization rate in CTAB micelles was found at the second critical micelle concentration. A mechanism of polyacrylamide formation and growth was proposed. A connection between the structures of the microemulsions and the polymerization rates was observed; the maximum polymerization rate occurred at two transition points, from W/O to BC and from BC to OW, and the polyacrylamide molecular weights, which depended on the structures of the microemulsions, were also found. A square-root dependence of the polymerization rates on the initiator concentrations was obtained in CTAB micelles and O/W microemulsion media. The polymerization of the oil-soluble monomer styrene in different As/n-butanol/20% styrene/water microemulsion media (W/O, BC, and O/W) was also investigated with different initiators: water-soluble potassium persulfate and oil-soluble azobisisobutyronitrile. A similar connection between the structures of the microemulsions and the conversions of styrene in CTAB/n-butanol/10% n-octane/water for the polymerization of acrylamide was observed again. The structures of the microemulsions had an important role in the molecular weights and sizes of polystyrene. The polystyrene particles were 10-20 nm in diameter in BC microemulsion media and 30-60 nm in diameter in O/W microemulsion media according to transmission electron microscopy. We determined the solubilization site of styrene in O/W microemulsion drops by H-1 NMR spectra to analyze the results of the microemulsion polymerization of styrene.