At the appropriate Krafft temperature and critical micelle concentration these molecules will form individual tear-drop loops, where the hydrophobic ends are attracted to one another, to other molecules, and also to the similarly hydrophobic QDs. This forms a loaded micelle with a hydrophilic outer shell and a hydrophobic core.
When encapsulating hydrophobes in this way it is important to ensure the particle size is appropriate for the PEG backbone being utilized, as the number of PEG mer units (generally with a molecular weight of 6 kDa or 10 kDa) determines the maximum particle size that can be successfully contained at the core of the micelle.
To determine the average diameter, D, of the QDs, the following empirical equation is used:
Where
*  is the diameter of the CdSe QD in nm
*  is the wavelength of the first absorption peak in nm