Legionella pneumophila has been pinpointed by the World Health Organization as the highest health burden of all waterborne pathogens in the European Union and is responsible for many disease outbreaks around the globe. Today, standard analysis methods (based on bacteria culturing onto agar plates) need several days (~12) in specialized analytical laboratories to yield results, not allowing for timely actions to prevent outbreaks. Over the last decades, great efforts have been made to develop more efficient waterborne pathogen diagnostics and faster analysis methods, requiring further advancement of microfluidics and sensors for simple, rapid, accurate, inexpensive, real-time, and on-site methods. Herein, a lab-on-a-chip device integrating sample preparation by accommodating bacteria capture, lysis, and DNA isothermal amplification with fast (less than 3 h) and highly sensitive, colorimetric end-point detection of L. pneumophila in water samples is presented, for use at the point of need. The method is based on the selective capture of viable bacteria on on-chip-immobilized and -lyophilized antibodies, lysis, the loop-mediated amplification (LAMP) of DNA, and end-point detection by a color change, observable by the naked eye and semiquantified by computational image analysis. Competitive advantages are demonstrated, such as low reagent consumption, portability and disposability, color change, storage at RT, and compliance with current legislation.

Quasi‐periodic nanostructures on a variety of materials have recently attracted tremendous attention due to their capability to dramatically change the materials’ surface performance and enable a variety of applications. In reported studies, materials are nanostructured by “exotic” preparation strategies such as self‐assembly, cluster ion beams, and femtosecond lasers, not necessarily providing rapid, large‐area, and scalable fabrication based on a widespread technology. Herein, reactive plasma etching is proposed as a conventional technological route for maskless, large‐area, and mass production of quasi‐periodic nanoripples formed on the bottom, adjacent to the electrode, area of polymeric substrates perpendicularly oriented with respect to the electrode. To provide a justification basis for the proposed strategy, a comprehensive modeling framework is employed for the calculation of particle trajectories, which predict the angular and energy distribution of ions reaching the perpendicular substrate. These distributions show ions impinging on the area adjacent to the electrode with high off‐normal angles and high energies, favoring the formation of nanoripples. The density of the formed nanoripples and the degree of their quasi‐periodicity are dependent on ion density, processing time, and the polymer material, enabling the control of such plasma‐induced periodic surface structures that can be paramount for a wide spectrum of applications.