A novel multifunctional electrochemical platform for simultaneous detection, elimination, and inactivation of pathogenic bacteria based on the Vancomycin-functionalised AgNPs/3D-ZnO nanorod arrays

A novel fast, sensitive, and specific multifunctional electrochemical platform has been proposed for simultaneous detection, elimination, and inactivation of pathogenic bacteria for the first time. The platform is constituted with three-dimensional ZnO nanorod arrays (3D-ZnO) decorated with sliver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and functionalized with vancomycin (Van). Based on the specific recognition of Van for Gram-positive bacteria, the fabricated electrochemical platform has presented high detection sensitivity to Staphylococcus aureus with a low detection limit of 330 cfu/mL and adaptable bacterial-elimination efficiency (50%) at low concentrations (1000-2000 cfu/mL). Moreover, the platform has shown high antibacterial activity (99.99%) arising from the synergistic germicidal effect of the composited antibacterial AgNPs and Van units. The current work could provide new strategies to construct advanced platforms for simultaneous detection, elimination, and inactivation of various pathogenic bacteria.