Naturally occurring bioactive compounds have attracted
significant
interest from the perspective of scientific and industrial aspects
owing to the wide range of technological, economic, and healthcare
benefits. Their synthetic origin still suffers from several impeding
challenges, such as expensive extraction and low yield. To address
these critical issues, a unique hybridized system termed “algal-nanohybrids”
was established by integrating green microalgae, Chlorella
sorokiniana, with carbon-based heterostructured nanomaterials
(CHNs), enhancing the microalgal growth for the sustainable augmentation
of bioactive compounds as renewable sources of secondary metabolites.
Hitherto, this work presents a new avenue in the formation of CHNs
comprising propene-bridged cyanurate tetramer crystals nested on two-dimensional
(2D) nanosheets, possessing excellent photocatalytic activity along
with biocompatibility for the sustainable production of bioactive
compounds. Mechanistic insights into the formation of CHNs and their
plausible interaction with the algal cells were deciphered using a
suite of characterization techniques. The conceptual significance
of CHNs was elaborated, as an efficient nanomachinery for bolstering
the enhanced production of lutein (97%) from C. sorokiniana, which is higher than that reported for other lutein-producing microalgae
grown under photoautotrophic conditions. Interestingly, CHNs not only
promoted microalgal biomass by 88% but also enhanced the production
of chlorophyll a and carotenoids by 42 and 75%, respectively.
This unprecedented work advances the synthesis of biocompatible CHNs,
which can provide a breakthrough in the industry for the production
of natural lutein and other bioactive compounds from microalgae.