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A facile assay for direct colorimetric visualization of lipopolysaccharides at low nanomolar level

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Abstract

We report a facile assay for the rapid visual detection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) molecules down to the low nanomolar level by taking advantage of the electrostatic interaction between LPS molecules and cysteamine-modified gold nanoparticles (CSH-Au NPs). The large amount of negatively charged groups on the LPS molecules make LPS highly negatively charged. Thus, when modified with cysteamine, the positively charged gold nanoparticles can aggregate in the presence of trace amounts of LPS. The probe is simple, does not require any advanced instrumentation, and the limit of detection (LOD) was determined to be as low as 3.3 × 10−10 mol/L. To the best of our knowledge, it is the most sensitive synthetic LPS sensor reported so far.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100190, China

    Jiayu Sun, Jiechao Ge, Weimin Liu, Xueliang Wang, Zhiyuan Fan, Wenwen Zhao, Hongyan Zhang & Pengfei Wang

  2. Center of Super-Diamond and Advanced Films (COSDAF) and Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Shuit-Tong Lee

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  1. Jiayu Sun
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  2. Jiechao Ge
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  3. Weimin Liu
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  4. Xueliang Wang
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  5. Zhiyuan Fan
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  6. Wenwen Zhao
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  7. Hongyan Zhang
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  8. Pengfei Wang
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Correspondence to Pengfei Wang.

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Sun, J., Ge, J., Liu, W. et al. A facile assay for direct colorimetric visualization of lipopolysaccharides at low nanomolar level. Nano Res. 5, 486–493 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-012-0234-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-012-0234-1

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