Exploiting the Tunneling Coffee Ring Effect of Universal Colorimetric Nanomaterials for Ultrafast On-Site Microbial Monitoring

The coffee-ring effect is an eye-catching circle originating from a material-suspended liquid droplet at a solid substrate after liquid evaporation, but the low speediness has restricted practical applications. When nanomaterial aqueous solutions are dropped onto porous nitrocellulose (NC), the liquid is immediately absorbed through the porous tunnels of paper fibers, and nanomaterials are rapidly enriched on the contact lines between droplets and membranes. We called this ultrafast variant of the coffee ring effect the “tunneling coffee ring” (TCR). When nanomaterial sizes are smaller than that of pores, a larger-diameter ring of nanomaterials quickly materializes. The real-time particle size-dependent TCRs and liquid diffusion rings exhibit a dual-ring pattern on the NC membrane. The tunneling speed of the capillary effect is so fast that the pattern appears within seconds. We apply the TCR effect as a size-surface affinity-particle/fluid separation sensor for bacteria. Dextran-modified Au and MoS₂ nanostructures are proposed to be antibody-free microbe kits. Our TCR effect is used to distinguish between particles of different sizes and affinities, which are highly relevant in complicated systems without electricity and equipment in resource-poor settings.