Fig. 5
a Photostability comparison of SA-FSiNPs and RBITC dye. Bacteria S. typhimurium were labeled with the biotin-labeled aptamer and SA-FSiNPs (a1–a5) and RBITC-labeled aptamer (b1–b5), respectively, and excited for 10 min by the successive intense irradiation. The fluorescence images were acquired at 0 s (a1 and b1), 60 s (a2 and b2), 2 min (a3 and b3), 5 min (a4 and b4), and 10 min (a5 and b5), respectively. Scale bar = 5 μm. b Quantitative analysis of bacterial cells, mean ± error bar (set at P < 0.05) versus different probes