Nanomaterial Engineered Biosensors and Stimulus–Responsive Platform for Emergency Monitoring and Intelligent Diagnosis

Biosensing technology serves as a cornerstone in biomedical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, personalized medicine, and wearable devices, playing an indispensable role in precise detection and real-time monitoring. Compared with traditional sensing platforms, functional nanomaterials-by virtue of their ultra-large specific surface area, exceptional optoelectronic properties, and superior catalytic activity-significantly enhance the sensitivity, selectivity, and response speed of biosensors. This has enabled ultrasensitive, rapid, and even in situ detection of disease biomarkers, pollutants, and pathogens. This review summarizes recent advances in five key categories of functional nanomaterials-metallic, semiconductor, carbon-based, two-dimensional, and stimulus-responsive materials-for advanced biosensing applications. It elucidates the structure-property relationships governing sensing performance, such as the surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles and the high carrier mobility of graphene, and analyzes the core mechanisms behind optical sensing, electrochemical sensing, and emerging multimodal sensing strategies. With a focus on medical diagnostics, wearable health monitoring, and environmental and food safety surveillance, the review highlights the application value of functional nanomaterials across diverse scenarios. Current research is progressively moving beyond single-performance optimization toward intelligent design, multifunctional integration, and real-world deployment, though challenges related to industrial application remain. Finally, the review outlines existing issues in the development of functional nanomaterial-based biosensors and offers perspectives on the integration of nanomaterials with cutting-edge technologies and the construction of novel sensing systems. This work aims to provide insights for the rational design of functional nanomaterials and the cross-disciplinary translation of biosensing technologies.