Facile Synthesis of Multicompartment Micelles Based on Biocompatible Poly(3-hydroxyalkanoate)

In this paper, a straightforward method to produce poly(3-hydroxyalkanoate)-based multicompartment micelles (MCMs) is presented. Thiol-ene addition is used to graft sequentially perfluorooctyl chains and poly(ethylene glycol) oligomers onto poly(3-hydroxyoctanoate-co-hydroxyundecenoate) oligomers backbone. Well-defined copolymers are obtained as shown by 1H NMR and size-exclusion chromatography. After nanoprecipitation in water, novel PHA-based MCMs are evidenced by cryo-transmission electron microscopy. Moreover, the cytocompatibility of MCMs is demonstrated in vitro via cell viability assay.