Chemiresistive Gas Sensors for the Detection of Listeria monocytogenes Metabolite: Recent Progress and Challenges

Listeria monocytogenes (LM), one of the most virulent foodborne pathogens, poses a serious threat to public health due to its strong environmental adaptability and high pathogenicity. Rapid, sensitive, and real-time detection of LM is of great importance. Chemiresistive gas sensors have attracted enormous attention in LM detection owing to their advantages of low cost, simple structure, fast response, and easy miniaturization, which can achieve indirect detection of LM by recognizing its specific metabolic volatile organic compounds. This review summarizes the recent progress in chemiresistive gas sensors for the detection of LM metabolites. First, the metabolic characteristics of LM and the typical volatile organic compound (3-hydroxy-2-butanone) as its characteristic biomarker are introduced. Then, the performance and sensing mechanisms of different types of chemiresistive gas sensors for LM metabolite detection are summarized and elaborated systematically. The application of chemiresistive gas sensors for the detection of actual samples and the progress in the design of related detection devices are introduced. Finally, the current challenges faced by chemiresistive gas sensors in LM metabolite detection and their future development prospects are discussed. This review provides a comprehensive reference for the research and practical application of chemiresistive gas sensors in Listeria monocytogenes detection.