Photoacoustic and fluorescent methods are used intensely in biology and medicine. These approaches can also be used to investigate unicellular diatom algae that are extremely important for Earth’s ecology. They are enveloped within silica frustules (exoskeletons), which can be used in drug delivery systems. Here, we report for the first time the successful application of photoacoustic (PA) and fluorescent visualization of diatoms. Chlorophyll a and c and fucoxanthin were found likely to be responsible for the photoacoustic effect in diatoms. The PA signal was obtained from gel drops containing diatoms and was found to increase with the diatom concentration. The fluorescence lifetime of the diatom chromophores ranged from 0.5 to 2 ns. The dynamic light scattering, absorbance, and SEM characterization techniques were also applied. The results were considered in combination to elucidate the nature of the photoacoustic signal. Possible biotechnological applications are proposed for the remote photoacoustic monitoring of algae.

光声和荧光方法广泛用于生物学和医学领域。这些方法也可用于研究对地球生态极为重要的单细胞硅藻藻类。它们被包裹在硅胶壳（外骨骼）中，可用于药物输送系统。在这里，我们首次报道了硅藻的光声（PA）和荧光可视化的成功应用。叶绿素a和c发现氟西汀和岩藻黄质可能是造成硅藻中光声效应的原因。PA信号是从含有硅藻的胶滴中获得的，发现随硅藻浓度的增加而增加。硅藻发色团的荧光寿命为0.5到2 ns。还应用了动态光散射，吸光度和SEM表征技术。结合考虑结果以阐明光声信号的性质。提出了可能的生物技术应用用于藻类的远程光声监测。