Surface Functional Nanofiber Membrane for Ultrasensitive and Naked-Eye Visualization of Bacterial Concentration

Bacterial contamination in water is a serious health risk to human beings, so it is very important to realize the point-of-care (POC) bacterial detection in water. However, the traditional bacterial detection methods are time-consuming, professional- and equipment-dependent, and do not meet the needs of POC detection. There is a pressing need to develop a platform for POC bacterial detection to defeat the increasing risk of bacterial infections. Herein, a surface functional nanofiber membrane (NFM) is prepared by layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly as a platform for POC detection of bacterial concentration; it is naked-eye visualization and ultrasensitive. The platform shows obvious bacterial responsiveness, which allows naked-eye visualization of bacterial concentration (102–106 CFU/mL) within 30 min and can quantitatively detect the bacterial concentration (101–106 CFU/mL) by fluorescence within 5 min. The platform not only exhibits high efficiency but also has a low threshold for bacterial concentration detection. Furthermore, the platform shows good consistency with traditional methods in the detection of bacteria in practical water samples, and has the potential for use in detecting bacterial concentrations in water supplies to protect human beings from health hazards. This work also provides useful reference for research on bacterial detection, taking advantage of the surface characteristics of bacteria and the high sensitivity of NFM.