A SERS aptasensor based on porous Au-NC nanoballoons for Staphylococcus aureus detection

In this work, we developed a new approach for fabricating hollow and porous nitrogen doped carbon nanoballoons loading AuNPs (Au-NC-NBs) with a large specific surface area, a high N and Au content. The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) aptasensor based on the resulting Au-NC-NBs possess a wider linear range (10 to 10(7) cells/mL), a lower detection limit (3 cells/mL), better selectivity for detecting bacteria than previously reported sensors. Importantly, Au-NC-NBs SERS aptasensor also exhibits excellent performance for detecting bacteria in the real food and biological samples. This work provides a facile and versatile designing strategy for controlled construction of SERS biosensor by combination of Au nanoparticles and carbon materials, which has a great applied potential in food safety monitoring and clinical diagnosis. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This work presents a new method for fabricating Au-NC-NBs with a large specific surface area and high N and Au content, which are used to develop a SERS aptasensor with wider linear range and better selectivity for detecting bacteria. The sensor also performs well in detecting bacteria in real food and biological samples, showing great potential in food safety monitoring and clinical diagnosis.