In this review, we provide an overview of six major techniques to tune the sensitivity and specificity of polydiacetylene-based sensors.

Polydiacetylene (PDA) sensors have been developed as food management tools due to their convenient colorimetric signal, low cost, versatility, and ability to be incorporated into food packaging materials and devices....

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The detection of pathogenic bacteria is essential to prevent and treat infections and to provide food security. Current gold-standard detection techniques, such as culture-based assays and polymerase chain reaction, are time-consuming and require centralized laboratories. Therefore, efforts have focused on developing point-of-care devices that are fast, cheap, portable and do not require specialized training. Paper-based analytical devices meet these criteria and are particularly suitable to deployment in low-resource settings. In this Review, we highlight paper-based analytical devices with substantial point-of-care applicability for bacteria detection and discuss challenges and opportunities for future development.

Recently, volatile organic compound (VOC) detection has broadened from conventional environmental safety and air quality monitoring to food quality control and disease diagnosis. Current VOC detection technologies are expensive, bulky, and nonintuitive. Polydiacetylenes (PDAs) as colorimetric sensors have been extensively studied owing to their unique structural and optical properties. PDA’s color changes from blue (nonfluorescent) to red (fluorescent) upon exposure to stimuli. This blue-to-red transition is visible to the naked eye, making it highly suitable for independent and rapid detection. PDA is versatile and can be fabricated in various forms including paper, thin film, and 3D scaffold. In this Perspective, we provide an overview of PDA-based systems for VOC detection. We focus not only on the performance but also on the sensor VOC testing methods (calculation and experimental setup). We then identify several aspects to improve in future research to enable cross-comparison and validation between studies. Furthermore, we also outline the key considerations for device fabrication to facilitate better translation of research to commercialization.

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