Boosting biomass, lipid content, carbon sequestration capacity of microalgae cultivated with aggregation-induced emission light-converting films

Abstract

Abstract Microalgae are a kind of promising raw material for bioenergy production and carbon sequestration. To enhance cell growth and production efficiency, great efforts were made for exploring the appropriate intensity and quality of light to improve the synthesis of the value-added products. The aggregation-induced emission (AIE) material (Astrazon Brilliant Red 4G), active for converting blue-green light to red light (630–680 nm), was for the first time applied in the research to achieve high fatty acid yield with considerable carbon-neutral ability. After 10 days-incubation, it revealed that AIE light-converting films boosted the biomass of microalgae Scenedesmus obliquus, Phaeodactylum tricornutum, and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii by 13.00%, 28.00%, and 26.00%, and the total lipid contents increased by 34.60%, 17.74%, and 22.63%, with the carbon sequestration capacity raised by 17.18%, 38.89%, and 35.71%. Furthermore, AIE light-converting films promoted the accumulation of unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) in all three microalgae. Our study demonstrated the potential application of AIE light-converting films for cultivating microalgae to capture high carbon dioxide for photosynthesize carbon-neutral energy and high-valued active compounds.