Microalgae as Soft Permeable Particles

For non-motile microalgae, colloidal surface interactions are the only factor modulating their distribution in space. This is not a totally passive phenomenon as the surface polymer layer of algae can change upon environmental conditions. This way, depending on light or nutriment availability for examples, the algal population will approach or not the air/water interface, adhere to a support, disperse or aggregate together. Understanding the physical mechanism at stake is thus important to comprehend the behavior of microalgae populations in the environment.

We have shown for the first time that that microalgae behave as soft permeable particles composed of a solid core surrounding by a permeable polyelectrolyte layer. This opens new ways for a deeper understanding of their behavior of in the environment.

If you want to know more
P. Araujo Gomes, J.-B. d’Espinose de Lacaillerie, B. Lartiges, M. Maliet, V. Molinier, N. Passade-Boupat, and N. Sanson, Microalgae as Soft Permeable Particles, Langmuir Article ASAP (2022)

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.2c01735