An integrated multifunctional photoelectrochemical platform for simultaneous capture, detection, and inactivation of pathogenic bacteria

New approach for the fabrication of the photoelectrochemical (PEC) platform has been firstly demonstrated for simultaneous capture, detection, and inactivation of pathogenic bacteria. The BiOI semiconductor film is selected as photo-electricity conversion unit and visible light driven (VLD) photocatalytic antibacterial unit, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are used as link unit and 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid (4-MPBA) is chosen as antibiotic-free capture unit. Based on the reversibly binds between boronic acid group and peptidoglycan of the bacteria cell wall, the integrated PEC platform presents excellent capture performance and high detection sensitivity to Escherichia coli (E. coli) with a low detection limit of 46 cfu/mL. Moreover, this multifunctional platform shows high antibacterial activity (99.99%) arising from the VLD photocatalytic effect of AuNPs/BiOI. The current work can provide new strategies to construct advanced green PEC platforms for detection of various pathogenic bacteria.