Nanozymes are an excellent class of optical reporters for the development of sensitive biosensors for widespread applications. In this study, mesoporous core-shell palladium@platinum (Pd@Pt) nanoparticles were synthesized and then applied as signal amplifier in a dual lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) and integrated with a smartphone-based device for use in simultaneous detection of Salmonella Enteritidis and Escherichia coli O157:H7. After optimization, the limit of detections were calculated to be ∼20 cfu/mL for S. Enteritidis and ∼34 cfu/mL for E. coli O157:H7, respectively. The greatly improved sensitivity was contributed by the peroxidase-like catalytic activity of the Pd@Pt nanoparticles for signal enhancement and the parallel design of dual detection for eliminating the cross-interference. The estimated recoveries of the dual LFIA range from 91.44 to 117.00%, which indicated that the developed method is capable of detecting live bacteria in food samples. This approach provides an attractive platform for S. Enteritidis and E. coli O157:H7 detection using a smartphone-based device as the sole piece of equipment, indicating great promise for foodborne pathogen analysis or in-field food safety tracking.
Keywords: E. coli O157:H7; Pt−Pd nanoparticles; Salmonella Enteritidis; lateral flow immunoassay; milk; smartphone.