Current Perspective and Developments in Electrochemical Sensors Modified with Nanomaterials for Environmental and Pharmaceutical Analysis

Abstract

Background: Over the past few decades, environmental pollution has appeared to be one of the most crucial global problems. The widespread intensification of numerous hazardous pollutants in the environment need the modern researchers to develop viable, reproducible and cost-effective determination tools for the reliable environmental analysis. The beneficial, as well as perilous, biological compounds are receiving growing interest due to their variable composition which produces advantageous and toxic impacts on human and the environment. Several conventional analytical methods have been established for the pharmaceutical and environmental analysis. However, certain drawbacks limited their practices in the modern rapidly growing era of science and technology. The development of electrochemical sensors has emerged as more beneficial and promising tool as against other traditional analytical approaches, in terms of simplicity, cost-effectiveness, sensitivity, stability and reliability. Nonetheless, the over potential and low anodic/cathodic current response are both considered as bottlenecks for the determination of electroactive entities exploiting electrochemical sensors. Interestingly, these problems can be easily resolved by modifying the electrodes with a variety of conductive materials, especially nanostructures. Objective: This review covers different electrochemical methods, reported in the literature, for the environmental and pharmaceutical analysis through simple and cost-effective nanostructures-based sensors. The electrochemical techniques with different modes and the modification of electrodes with highly conductive and prolific polymeric and nanostructured materials used for the determination of different environmental and pharmaceutical samples are the main prominence of this review. Various kinds of nanomaterials, e.g. metal, metal oxide and their composites, have been synthesized for the fabrication of sensitive electrodes. Conclusion: Nanostructures played a pivotal role in the modification of electrodes, which substantially enhanced the capability and sensitivity of electrochemical sensors. The proper modification of electrodes has materialized the swift detection of electroactive compounds at very low limits and offered the feasible determination procedure without any kind of signal fluctuation and over potential. In crux, due to their enhanced surface area and excellent catalytic properties, nanomaterials recently appeared as the most promising candidates in the field of electrode modification and significantly impacted the detection protocols for various environmental pollutants, viz. pesticides, metal ions and drugs.

Superficial and Inkjet Scalable Printed Sensors Integrated with Iron Oxide and Reduced Graphene Oxide for Sensitive Voltammetric Determination of Lurasidone

“…While developing a novel voltammetric sensor, investigations were carried out to improve the sensor performance through integration of the electrode matrix with various carbonaceous and metal/metal oxide nanostructures. − The electrocatalytic activity of the nanostructured materials and their ability to catalyze the electrode process enhance the kinetics of the electron-transfer process at the electrode surface, which in turn improves the electrode performance.…”

Heterogeneous kinetics of CuO nanoflakes in simultaneous decolorization of Eosin Y and Rhodamine B in aqueous media

“…One of the major environmental toxins are engineered dyes, which are exceedingly harmful for the biological system, when they are not treated properly. Dyes are broadly utilized within the paints, rubber, drugs, cosmetics, food and textile industries and continuously discharged in the environment and water bodies (Aravind et al 2016;Gurr 2012;Li et al 2017;Long et al 2017;Mohammad 2015). Around 100,000 distinctive dyes are prevailing in the environment and it is difficult to make them free from harmfulness due to the complicated structure developing from coal-tar-based hydrocarbons (Panhwar et al 2021;Sudha et al 2014;Tan et al 2008).…”

Novel Dual-Signal SiO2-COOH@MIPs Electrochemical Sensor for Highly Sensitive Detection of Chloramphenicol in Milk

“…Among the various detection methods, electrochemical methods have received extensive attention due to their fast detection speeds, ease of operation, and low detection costs [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. For the sake of achieving high specificity in detection, some recognition elements with specific recognition capabilities such as antibodies [ 8 , 9 ], aptamers [ 10 , 11 ], enzymes [ 12 ], and molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) [ 13 , 14 , 15 ] have been extensively utilized.…”