Ethyl-cyanoethyl cellulose [(E-CE)C] /acrylic acid (AA) solution could form cholesteric networks when the AA was quickly photopolymerized. The cholesteric structure in the solution was changed during the polymerization but the variation of the cholesteric order could be depressed by crosslinking of the system. The dependence of lambda(max) for the cholesteric phase on both the crosslinker concentration and the polymerization temperature was studied by UV-Vis spectrometry. It was found that the cholesteric pitch variation is decreased with increasing the concentration of the crosslinking reagent and the water sensitivity of the cholesteric network is effectively suppressed and dependent on the types of crosslinker. The pitch of cholesteric network was decreased sharply with increasing the polymerization temperature, due to the increase of the volume shrinkage of the solvent during the polymerization. (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.