Bacterial
contamination in water is a serious health risk to human
beings, so it is very important to realize the point-of-care (POC)
bacterial detection in water. However, the traditional bacterial detection
methods are time-consuming, professional- and equipment-dependent,
and do not meet the needs of POC detection. There is a pressing need
to develop a platform for POC bacterial detection to defeat the increasing
risk of bacterial infections. Herein, a surface functional nanofiber
membrane (NFM) is prepared by layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly as
a platform for POC detection of bacterial concentration; it is naked-eye
visualization and ultrasensitive. The platform shows obvious bacterial
responsiveness, which allows naked-eye visualization of bacterial
concentration (102–106 CFU/mL) within
30 min and can quantitatively detect the bacterial concentration (101–106 CFU/mL) by fluorescence within 5 min.
The platform not only exhibits high efficiency but also has a low
threshold for bacterial concentration detection. Furthermore, the
platform shows good consistency with traditional methods in the detection
of bacteria in practical water samples, and has the potential for
use in detecting bacterial concentrations in water supplies to protect
human beings from health hazards. This work also provides useful reference
for research on bacterial detection, taking advantage of the surface
characteristics of bacteria and the high sensitivity of NFM.