Revealing the Friction Stress of Microalgae in Microfluidic Devices through Mechanofluorochromism

This work looks at how to measure the tiny shear and friction forces that microalgae feel when they are confined and moved through micro‑fluidic channels. The method uses polydiacetylene (PDA) sensors that change color when they are stressed. By watching this color change, we can see and quantify the forces that break the cell wall and release valuable compounds inside the cells. A triethoxysilane diacetylene precursor is chemically attached to the inner walls of the channels. When exposed to light it polymerizes into a low‑emissive purple film. As Chlamydomonas reinhardtii algae are squeezed and forced through narrow channel sections, the friction causes the film to switch to a bright red

state. The fluorescence can increase by as much as 83 %. The project also gives detailed instructions for: – modeling the fluid‑structure interaction in the channels, – simulating velocity and shear‑stress distributions, and – linking the measured fluorescence to the local boundary shear stress. These microscale force probes can help fine‑tune cell‑lysis and extraction steps in microalgae biotechnology.

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