Polyethyleneimine-interlayered silica-core quantum dot-shell nanocomposites for sensitive detection of a lateral flow immunoassay.

Herein, we synthesized high-performance SiO-core quantum dot (QD)-shell nanocomposites (SiO@PEI-QDs) using the polyethyleneimine (PEI)-mediated adsorption method. Cationic PEI was used to form a positively charged interlayer on the SiO core, which achieved a dense adsorption of carboxylated QDs to form a shell of QDs and maintained a good dispersibility of the nanocomposite. The SiO@PEI-QDs showed excellent stability and high luminescence, and served as high-performance fluorescent labels for the detection of bacteria when used with the lateral flow immunoassay (LFA) technique. An SiO@PEI-QD-based LFA strip was successfully applied to rapidly detect in milk samples with a low limit of 5 × 10 cells per mL.