A polydopamine coated magnetic spiral switchable composite material for photothermal sterilization and dual-color fluorescence detection of food-borne pathogens

A multifunctional magnetic composite material (MSp@PDA) featuring with helical structure, superparamagnetism, photothermal properties, and fluorescence quenching capability was synthesized through sequential magnetization and in-situ polydopamine coating on the Spirulina surface, then applied for multi-scenario application of pathogens capture, sterilization, and sensitive detection. The pathogens capture and sterilization was investigated by loading bacterial broad-spectrum recognition molecule (MPBA) on MSp@PDA, the capture efficiencies of 91.6% and 94.2% were obtained for Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus in 15 minutes, respectively, with complete photothermal sterilization achieved within 4 minutes. The fluorescence real-time detection of E. coli and S. aureus was realized by connecting dual-color fluorescent carbon dots to MSp@PDA through specific aptamers (dCD-apt-MSp@PDA), the corresponding detection limits were 2 and 3 cfu·mL^-1, respectively, with linear ranges of 10¹~10⁷ cfu·mL^-1. The spiked recovery rates of target bacteria in actual samples were 97.4%~101.1% and 98.2%~101.4% for E. coli and S. aureus, respectively. The constructed capture, sterilization, and fluorescence detection methods demonstrated promising application value for on-site monitoring of food-borne pathogens in complex matrices.