Applications of smart materials in bacterial detection: Functional design and device construction

Bacterial contamination is a serious threat to global public health, creating an urgent need for rapid, sensitive detection technologies. Owing to their excellent programmable recognition and efficient signal conversion capabilities, smart materials offer a new technical pathway for bacterial detection. This review summarizes recent advances in smart materials for bacterial detection. The design principles and functionalization strategies of smart materials featuring biological and artificial recognition elements are first covered. Then the amplification mechanisms and enhancement pathways that convert biorecognition events into electrical and optical signals are detailed. Based on this framework, this review extracts core design principles for enhancing detection performance. Finally, this review discusses current issues in specificity, stability, and device integration, as well as outlining future directions. Smart materials provide a versatile platform for building next-generation detection systems, offering significant potential for advancing precision medicine and safeguarding public safety. • Smart materials enable programmable bacterial recognition and signal conversion. • Biological and artificial recognition elements offer complementary strengths and limitations. • Rational material and interface design is critical for sensitive and reliable detection. • Integrated smart sensing platforms support rapid and portable bacterial detection.