Bacteria cause many common infections and are the culprit
of many
outbreaks throughout history that have led to the loss of millions
of lives. Contamination of inanimate surfaces in clinics, the food
chain, and the environment poses a significant threat to humanity,
with the increase in antimicrobial resistance exacerbating the issue.
Two key strategies to address this issue are antibacterial coatings
and effective detection of bacterial contamination. In this study,
we present the formation of antimicrobial and plasmonic surfaces based
on Ag–Cu
x
O nanostructures using
green synthesis methods and low-cost paper substrates. The fabricated
nanostructured surfaces exhibit excellent bactericidal efficiency
and high surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity. The Cu
x
O ensures outstanding and rapid antibacterial
activity within 30 min, with a rate of >99.99% against typical
Gram-negative Escherichia coli and
Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. The plasmonic Ag
nanoparticles facilitate the electromagnetic enhancement of Raman
scattering and enables rapid, label-free, and sensitive identification
of bacteria at a concentration as low as 103 cfu/mL. The
detection of different strains at this low concentration is attributed
to the leaching of the intracellular components of the bacteria caused
by the nanostructures. Additionally, SERS is coupled with machine
learning algorithms for the automated identification of bacteria with
an accuracy that exceeds 96%. The proposed strategy achieves effective
prevention of bacterial contamination and accurate identification
of the bacteria on the same material platform by using sustainable
and low-cost materials.
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