Emerging inorganic nanomaterial-based electrochemical sensors for heavy metal detection in food: Advances, challenges, and prospects

作者：Xuefei Shan, Xiuxiu Jia, Jianbing Chen, Sanshuang Gao, Yingxin Zhang, Guangzhi Hu · 发表于：Current Research in Food Science · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.1016/j.crfs.2026.101346 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Electrochemical Analysis and Applications、Analytical chemistry methods development、Electrochemical sensors and biosensors

The review focuses on the application of inorganic nanomaterial-based electrochemical sensors in heavy metal detection in food, systematically outlining their technical principles, performance challenges, and development prospects. Heavy metals are among the most concerning food contaminants due to their high toxicity at trace levels, persistence, and bioaccumulation, creating an urgent need for rapid and reliable screening in complex food matrices. Electrochemical sensors-particularly stripping voltammetry-based platforms-offer high sensitivity, low detection limits, and fast response, but their practical performance is frequently constrained by matrix-induced fouling, ion interference, and inconsistent validation protocols. This review focuses on inorganic nanomaterial-engineered working electrodes (metals, metal oxides, carbon nanomaterials, and their composites) for food-related heavy-metal analysis, and provides a food-matrix-oriented structure-function-performance framework that links material roles (selective preconcentration, catalytic signal amplification, and antifouling interfaces) to analytical outcomes (sensitivity, selectivity, stability, and recovery). Representative electrode fabrication routes and commonly used testing settings are summarized together with essential material/electrode characterizations and electrochemical diagnostics. Importantly, we derive actionable conclusions for food-safety deployment: accurate quantification in real foods is dominated b...