The two strategies of mixing and copolymerizing were used to incorporate more drug-compatible butylene adipate (BA) repeating units into the less drug-compatible unsaturated poly(cis-2-butene adipate) (PCBA) core of micelles. Novel parameters were defined on the basis of the hydrodynamic radius of the particles. A comparison of the encapsulation capabilities of the different copolymerized and mixed micelles was performed with these parameters. Both the mixed and core-copolymerized micelles were indicated to have spherical morphologies and synergic properties of the copolymerized and mixed repeating units. They exhibited a higher encapsulation of the drug, a lower critical micelle concentration, and more controlled release behavior compared to the pure PCBA micelles. In addition, a comparative study of the two strategies was performed in the presence of same molar ratios of BA in the core. The mixed micelle formulation was found to be more effective in making a core more compatible to quercetin (as a model anticancer hydrophobic drug) with better pharmaceutical properties. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013