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

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 CeO2 nanoparticles onto cells. The engineered CeO2 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–CeO2 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.