Efficient production of uniform nanometer‐sized polymer vesicles in stirred‐tank reactors

Abstract

ABSTRACTPolymer vesicles, so‐called polymersomes, gain more and more attention as potential carriers for medical and biotechnological applications. To put the production of these nanocompartments into action at an industrial scale, an efficient and scalable process has to be established. Moreover, being able to control the resulting particle size distribution (PSD) is vital. In this work, the amphiphilic triblock copolymer poly(2‐methyloxazoline)15–poly(dimethylsiloxane)68–poly(2‐methyloxazoline)15 is formed into polymersomes in miniaturized stirred‐tank reactors. Varying flow conditions have a huge impact on the resulting PSD. Dynamic light scattering measurements show that driving a S‐shaped stirrer at 4000 rpm in unbaffled reactors leads to a monomodal PSD with a low polydispersity index (PDI<0.2). Vesicles with a mean diameter of 200 nm are achieved within less than 1 h in a single production step. The robustness of the established process is shown by producing uniform polymersomes at different temperatures and varying pH and buffer molarities. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43274.