The immobilization of cyanobacteria and microalgae in suitable biocompatible matrixes improve their performance as solid-state photosynthetic cell factories, by which CO<sub>2</sub> can be converted into industrially relevant and sustainably produced raw materials, such as ethylene and hydrogen. Herein, we present the fabrication of photosynthetic biohybrids based on cellulose nanofibers and Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 as a model microorganism using our newly introduced method based on osmotic dehydration, which minimized the cell stress during the biohybrid preparation and led to matrixes with defined gas and liquid transport. We investigated how the physico-chemical properties of the nanocellulose hydrogel matrix affect the proliferation of the immobilized culture, focusing on the characteristics of the nanofibers (e.g., water interaction and surface chemistry), porosity and optical properties of the hydrogels. Additionally, we analyzed the effect of temperature and light irradiation on cellular growth.

Engineering nanocellulose photosynthetic biohybrids for solid-state photosynthetic cell factories

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ACS Fall 2022

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