Klarite as a label-free SERS-based assay: A promising approach for atmospheric bioaerosol detection

Muhammad Ali Tahir, Xinlian Zhang, Hanyun Cheng, Dong Xu, Yiqing Feng, Guodong Sui, Hongbo Fu, Ventsislav K. Valev, Liwu Zhang, Jianmin Chen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Detecting atmospheric bioaerosols in a quantitative way is highly desirable for public health and safety. This work demonstrates that surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a simple and rapid analytical technique for the detection of atmospheric bioaerosols, on a Klarite substrate. For both simulated and ambient bioaerosols, this detection assay results in an increase in the enhancement factor of the Raman signal. We report a strong SERS signal generated by bioaerosols containing living Escherichia coli deposited on Klarite. Furthermore, we demonstrate that SERS mapping can be used to estimate the percentage of airborne, living Escherichia coli. Moreover, Klarite provides differently distinct SERS spectra at different bacterial growth phases, indicating its potential to identify changes occurring in the bacterial envelope. Finally, we applied SERS for the rapid detection of Escherichia coli in ambient bioaerosols without using time-consuming and laborious culture processes. Our results represent rapid, culture-free and label-free detection of airborne bacteria in the real-world environment.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)277-285
Number of pages9
JournalAnalyst
Volume145
Issue number1
Early online date12 Nov 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Jan 2020

Funding

This material is based upon work jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21976030 and 21677037), the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (2016YFE0112200 and 2016YFC0202700), the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (No. 19ZR1471200 and 17ZR1440200), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (No. KLH1829019). V. K. V. acknowledges support from the Royal Society through the University Research Fellowships and grants URF\R\191016, RGF\EA\180228 and PEF2E\100000.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Biochemistry
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Spectroscopy
  • Electrochemistry

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