The use of lyotropic liquid crystals (LLC) as a template to form periodic nanostructu.res in polymer materials is a promising technology. In this study, crosslinked poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate nanostructured materials were prepared by photopolymerization in LLC hexagonal phases. Polarized light microscopy and small-angle powder X-ray diffraction were used to understand the original LLC order retention on photopolymerization, and scanning electron microscope was used to investigate the morphology under different purifying solvents and drying conditions. A Quantachrome Autosorb 1 system was used to study the pore size distribution of samples. It was found that the LLC hexagonal structure was retained to a great extent after photopolymerization. The formation of nanostructures was affected by purifying solvent and drying condition. The nanostructure synthesized from LLC with favorably aligned nanopores will find increasing applications in gas and water filtration, biology, and health science. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 120: 1817-1821, 2011