Phosphorene based nano-sensors for mycotoxins in food products: a review

Mycotoxins are toxic fungal metabolites that pose serious challenges to worldwide food safety. It necessitates the rapid and sensitive methods for real-time detection of these compounds in food products. Conventional detection approaches are accurate, but their complexity, high cost and time consumption often create obstacles. The use of nanosensors, particularly those based on 2D-nanomaterials like phosphorene, are novel means for quick, sensitive, and low-cost detection of mycotoxins. Its tunable bandgap, high surface-to-volume ratio, and high electron mobility enables fast, sensitive, and low-cost detection of mycotoxins in real-food samples. Advances in synthesis and functionalization of phosphorene have improved its stability and integration into electrochemical, optical and field-effect transistor based sensors. Such phosphorene-based nanosensors exhibited exceptional low detection limits with improved selectivity for real-time monitoring of complex food products. Overall, phosphorene derived nanosensors have been established to be an innovative technology for on-site monitoring of mycotoxin contamination, facilitating overcome the challenges in food quality control.