3D Bioprinting of Jellyfish-Mimicking Constructs with Dynamical Responsiveness for Water Pollution Treatment

Wastewater treatment, particularly for persistent organic pollutants (POPs), remains a significant challenge. Although advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) currently used for treating POPs can achieve a decent efficiency, they often involve high costs and necessitate additional post-treatment processes. Here, a jellyfish-mimicking, multi-functional living material encapsulating algae cells are presented, namely Algelly, created using a multi-material digital-light processing (DLP) bioprinting technique. The Algelly construct comprises a methacrylated alginate (AlgMA) layer designed to support algae growth, and a poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) layer embedded with magnetic nanoparticles (MNs). The MNs enable the Algelly to respond to near-infrared (NIR) laser for deformation and magnetic force for steering. It is demonstrated that the DLP bioprinting technique can fabricate the heterogeneous Algelly with high spatial resolution and efficiency, which supports subsequent algae proliferation and effective photosynthesis in the Algelly matrix. Moreover, the NIR-induced thermo-responsive deformation and magnetic steering capabilities enhance Algelly's adaptability for recycling and collection. Most importantly, Algelly demonstrates a high efficiency in degrading POPs under white light illumination. Therefore, it is believed that Algelly holds a promising potential for new applications in wastewater treatment, given its efficiency in POP decomposition and flexible location control capabilities.