We report the synthesis of gold nanotwins (Au NTs) on
a solid and
transparent glass substrate which in turn has been employed for the
selective optoplasmonic detection of Escherichia coli (EC) bacteria in human urine for the point-of-care diagnosis of
urinary tract infections (UTIs). As compared to the single nanoparticle
systems (Au NPs), the Au NTs show an enriched localized surface plasmon
resonance (LSPR) due to the enhancement of the electric field under
electromagnetic irradiation, e.g., photon, which helps in improving
the limits of detection. For this purpose, initially a simple glass
surface has been coated with Au NPs, with the help of the linker 3-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane
– APTES. The surface has been linked further with another Au
NP with the help of the 1,10-alkane-dithiol linker with two thiol
ends, which eventually leads to the development of the optoplasmonic
surface with Au NTs and an enhanced LSPR response. Subsequently, the
EC specific aptamer has been chemically immobilized on the surface
of Au NTs with the blocking of free sites via bovine serum albumin
(BSA). Remarkably, Raman spectroscopy unfolds a 7-fold increase in
the peak intensities with the Au NTs on the glass surface as compared
to the surface coated with isolated Au NPs. The enhancement in the
LSPR response of glass substrates coated with Au NTs and the EC specific
aptamer has been further utilized for the selective and sensitive
detection of UTIs. The results have been verified with the help of
UV–visible spectroscopy to establish the utility of the proposed
sensing methodology. An extensive interference study with other bacterial
species unveils the selectivity and specificity of the proposed optoplasmonic
sensors toward EC with a detection range of 5 × 103 to 107 CFU/mL. Intuitively, the method is more versatile
in a sense that the sensor can be made specific to any other pathogens
by simply changing the design of the aptamer. Finally, a low-cost,
portable, and point-of-care optoplasmonic transduction setup is designed
with a laser light illumination source, a sample holder, and a sensitive
photodetector for the detection of UTIs in human urine.