Protection of Photosynthetic Algae against Ultraviolet Radiation by One-Step CeO₂ Shellization

Abstract

Photosynthetic microalgae play an important role in solar-to-chemical energy conversion on Earth, but the increasing solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation seriously reduces the biological photosynthesis. Here, we developed a one-step approach to construct cell-in-shell hybrid structure by using direct adsorption of CeO 2 nanoparticles onto cells. The engineered CeO 2 nanoshell can efficiently protect the enclosed Chlorella cell due to its excellent UV filter property, which can also eliminate UV-induced oxidative stress. The experiments demonstrate that the resulted algae–CeO 2 composites can guarantee their biological photosynthetic process and efficiency even under UV. This study follows a feasible strategy to protect living organisms by using functional nanomaterials to improve their biological functions.