Chemiluminescence assay for Listeria monocytogenes based on Cu/Co/Ni ternary nanocatalyst coupled with penicillin as generic capturing agent

Bacterial pathogen control is important in seafood production. In this study, a Cu/Co/Ni ternary nanoalloy (Cu/Co/Ni TNA) was synthesized using the oleylamine reducing method. It was found that Cu/Co/Ni TNA greatly enhanced the chemiluminescence (CL) signal of the hydroxylamine‐O‐sulfonic acid (HOSA)–luminol system. The CL properties of Cu/Co/Ni TNA were investigated systemically. The possible CL mechanism also was intensively investigated. Based on the enhanced CL phenomenon of Cu/Co/Ni TNA, a Cu/Co/Ni TNA, penicillin, and anti‐L. monocytogenes (Listeria monocytogenes) antibody‐based sandwich complex assay for detection of L. monocytogenes was established. In this sandwich CL assay, penicillin was employed to capture and enrich pathogenic bacteria with penicillin‐binding proteins (PBPs) while anti‐L. monocytogenes antibody was adopted as the specific recognition molecule to recognize L. monocytogenes. L. monocytogenes was detected sensitively based on this new Cu/Co/Ni TNA–HOSA–luminol CL system. The CL intensity was proportional to the L. monocytogenes concentration ranging from 2.0 × 10² CFU ml^?1 to 3.0 × 10⁷ CFU ml^?1 and the limit of detection wa 70 CFU ml^?1. The reliability and potential applications of our method was verified by comparison with official methods and recovery tests in environment and food samples.