Rapid remote detection of Escherichia coli via a reporter-hydrogel coated glass fiber tip

In this work the development of a responsive hydrogel coating for the remote sensing of bacterial enzymes is reported for the selective, sensitive and rapid in situ detection of (pathogenic) bacteria. The approach is based on the combination of a portable optical fiber setup with a self-reporting hydrogel applied as a coating on the glass fiber tip. To implement the enzyme sensing function, chitosan was functionalized with the chromogenic...