Combination of bacitracin-based flocculant and surface enhanced Raman scattering labels for flocculation, identification and sterilization of multiple bacteria in water treatment

Bacteria, especially antibiotic-resistant bacteria, in water threaten public health in countries. Simultaneous flocculation, sterilization and identification of bacteria are great challenge in water treatment. Herein we presented a three-in-one compound through combining a novel Bacitracin-based flocculant (B-g-PAMDAC) and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) labels, the modified Au@AgNPs using graphene oxide (GO) and 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid (4-MPBA). B-g-PAMDAC with bactericidal groups and microblock structure was synthesized via copolymerization and self-assembly. Its functional groups and microblock structure contributed to the excellent performance in flocculation of bacteria. 4-MPBA as bacterial capture bound to the bacterial cell membrane and contributed to recognition of bacteria in flocculation. Bacteria aggregating around Au@AgNPs resulted in abundant "hot spots" and strong Raman signals. SERS labels obviously improved the sensitivity, accuracy and stability of bacteria identification even at low bacterial concentration of 1 × 103 CFU mL-1. They presented distinct fingerprints of bacteria, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus cereus and Enterococcus faecalis, in Raman mappings. Bacitracin improved sterilization efficiency of B-g-PAMDAC in four bacteria treatment in terms of sterilization rate and time. β-galactosidase and respiratory activity of bacteria revealed sterilization mechanism of B-g-PAMDAC that changed permeability of cell membrane before it reduced the respiration activity of bacteria and ruptured cell wall.