Motivations and objectives of the research in this field

Coral bleaching, one of the most catastrophic ecosystem collapses in today’s environment crysis, can be reframed as a failure of energy flow regulation and redox balance in a driven, non-equilibrium photosynthetic system subjected to thermal stress. From a physical perspective, the coral–algae symbiosis represents a hybrid organic–biological system in which excess excitation and disrupted charge dissipation lead to oxidative instability and loss of functionality. The motivation of this research is to investigate whether semi conductive polymer nanoparticles can act as mesoscale regulators of light absorption, charge transport, and redox buffering within such a living system. The objective is not only to assess photoprotection outcomes, but to establish a physical framework for understanding and controlling energy dissipation and redox dynamics in complex biological systems, bridging concepts from non-equilibrium physics, organic electronics, materials science, and bioengineering. The ultima goal is to provide a solution for mitigating coral bleaching based on nanotechnology.

Methods and techniques that will be developed and used to carry out the research.

Optical Spectroscopy: Ultrafast spectroscopy in Living Photosysnthetic systems: Time Resolved Photoluminescence and Transient Absorption on Chlorophyll and NPs, Study of Photoprotection Ultrafast mechanism. Material Science: Nanoparticle Fabrication from different biopolymers and Characterization:Absorption, Photoluminescence, Photo electrochemistry, Dinamyc Light Scattering; Bioengineering: Engineering of NP-Coral Interface and Stress Response, ROS imaging, Dynamic Oxygen Evolution and Viability essays, Bleaching Simulations.