Ion Exchange Fabrication of Lanthanide Functionalized Layered Double Hydroxides Microcapsules for Rapid and Visual Detection of Anthrax Biomarker

The 3D hierarchical lanthanide functionalized layered double hydroxides microcapsules were synthesized via a facile ion exchange strategy and further developed as novel fluorescent probes for detecting trace amounts of the anthrax biomarker dipicolinicacid (DPA). The design of inexpensive fluorescent test strips can perform the on-site and real-time detection via a smartphone with a color recognition application. More prominently, the sensitivity of the system was evaluated by actual spore samples and with the detection limit as low as 3.54 × 104 spores/mL.