Multiplex nanozymatic biosensing of Salmonella on a finger-actuated microfluidic chip

A colorimetric biosensor was elaboratively designed for fast, sensitive and multiplex bacterial detection on a single microfluidic chip using immune magnetic nanobeads for specific bacterial separation, immune gold@platinum palladium nanoparticles for specific bacterial labeling, a finger-actuated mixer for efficient immunoreaction and two coaxial rotatable magnetic fields for magnetic nanobead capture (outer one) and magnet-actuated valve control (inner one). First, preloaded bacteria, nanobeads and nanozymes were mixed through a finger actuator to form nanobead-bacteria-nanozyme conjugates, which were captured by the outer magnetic field. After the inner magnetic field was rotated to successively wash the conjugates and push the H2O2-TMB substrate for resuspending these conjugates, colorless TMB was catalyzed into blue TMB(ox )products, followed by color analysis using ImageJ software for bacterial determination. This simple biosensor enabled multiplex Salmonella detection as low as 9 CFU per sample in 45 min.