Quantum dots-based system for the detection of bacteria in drinking water

Our paper presents a new development of quantum dot (QD)-based semi-automatic system for the detection of pathogenic bacteria in drinking water. It combined QDs imaging technique (with advantages of higher fluorescence intensity and longer fluorescent signal, multiple color choices, tolerant to reaction environment, et al.) with a fast filtration system, and enabled the semi-automatic detection process. Compared with the traditional culturing-based methods, this system requires less detection time and labor power for quantitative and rapid detection of the pathogenic bacteria. In this study, we spiked Escherichia coli O157:H7 in autoclaved drinking water and used the solution as an example to demonstrate the ability and feasibility of the designed system. The preliminary experimental results indicated that the proposed system is practicable with a very short detection time within 2 h and the detection limit can be as low as single bacterial cell in 1 mL of drinking water.