The effective identification and
quantitative determination of Staphylococcus aureus is a major public health concern.
Here, an innovative strategy that combines a bacteria-imprinted polydimethylsiloxane
film for bacterial recognition and fluorescence resonance energy transfer
platform for turn-on fluorescence sensing is demonstrated. The bacteria-imprinted
polydimethylsiloxane film was facilely fabricated to generate corresponding
specific sites on the polydimethylsiloxane surface via stamp imprinting
using Staphylococcus aureus as template followed
by modification with 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane. The
fluorescence resonance energy transfer platform was developed through
electrostatic interaction between citrate-functional copper clusters
and dopamine-stabilized gold nanoparticles. When the Staphylococcus
aureus are present, the 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane-modified
bacteria-imprinted polydimethylsiloxane film can precisely capture
the target; subsequently, the negatively charged bacteria compete
with citrate-functional copper clusters and bind to dopamine-stabilized
gold nanoparticles, leading to the fluorescence recovery of citrate-functional
copper clusters. The entire detection process was achieved within
135 min, showing a wide linear calibration response from 10 to 1 ×
107 cfu mL–1 with a low detection limit
of 11.12 cfu mL–1. Furthermore, the recoveries from
spiked samples were from 97.7 to 101.90% with relative standard derivations
lower than 10%. The established label-free assay of measuring Staphylococcus aureus is rapid, sensitive, specific, and
efficient.