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Using Nanomaterials in Colorimetric Toxin Detection

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Abstract

Exposure to toxins through contaminated food is a serious concern. For the detection of toxins in complex matrices, there are many analytical instrumentation-based methods; however, these approaches are generally expensive, laborious to perform, and require skilled technicians. Thus, they can only be utilized in centralized laboratories. To efficiently prevent the contamination by toxins and improve food safety, the use of on-site toxin detection methods enabling simple, rapid, sensitive, specific, reliable, and affordable identification of toxins is required. A colorimetric toxin detection strategy providing a naked-eye readout platform suits these requirements. Notably, the implementation of nanomaterials in the colorimetric strategy has proven to rapidly generate a higher capacity for detectable color responses owing to their unique physicochemical and catalytic properties. In this review, recent research on colorimetric toxin detection utilizing diverse nanostructures including noble metal nanoparticles and enzyme-like catalytic nanomaterials (nanozymes) is reviewed and discussed. Current challenges and future prospects for the utilization of nanomaterials in colorimetric toxin detection are also discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government [Ministry of Science and ICT (NRF-2019R1A2C1087459)] and by the Gachon University research fund of 2019 (GCU-2019-0812). This work was also supported under the framework of international cooperation program managed by NRF (NRF-2019K2A9A2A06020985).

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  1. Department of BioNano Technology, Gachon University, 1342 Seongnamdae-ro, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, 13120, Republic of Korea

    Quynh Huong Nguyen & Moon Il Kim

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  1. Quynh Huong Nguyen
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  2. Moon Il Kim
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Correspondence to Moon Il Kim.

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Nguyen, Q.H., Kim, M.I. Using Nanomaterials in Colorimetric Toxin Detection. BioChip J 15, 123–134 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13206-021-00013-4

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