Smart Materials for Biosensing of Infectious Diseases: Mechanisms, Materials, Platforms, and Translational Opportunities

Rapid and decentralized detection of infectious diseases remains a critical challenge for global healthcare systems. Conventional diagnostic methods such as polymerase chain reaction and immunoassays provide high analytical accuracy but often require centralized laboratories, complex workflows, and trained personnel, limiting their accessibility in point-of-care and resource-limited settings. Smart materials—materials capable of dynamically responding to external physical, chemical, or biological stimuli—have emerged as powerful platforms for next-generation biosensors due to their tunable physicochemical properties, signal amplification capabilities, and compatibility with miniaturized sensing architectures. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent advances in smart-material-enabled biosensors for infectious disease detection. Key material classes including graphene-based nanomaterials, piezoelectric materials, light-responsive nanostructures, magnetic materials, Prussian blue derivatives, metal–organic and covalent–organic frameworks (MOFs/COFs), and conductive polymer–hydrogel systems are discussed in terms of their sensing mechanisms, transduction strategies, and analytical performance. We highlight how these materials enable diverse detection modalities—including electrochemical, optical, piezoelectric, and magnetically mediated sensing—allowing rapid and highly sensitive detection of viral and bacterial pathogens. Emerging fabrication approaches, integration with microfluidic systems, wearable devices, and data-driven diagnostics are also examined. Finally, we discuss key challenges for clinical translation, including stability, biocompatibility, antifouling performance, large-scale manufacturing, and regulatory considerations. Smart materials provide a versatile foundation for developing next-generation biosensing technologies capable of enabling rapid, decentralized, and continuous infectious disease monitoring.