Research progress on photoelectrochemical sensors for contamination analysis in agricultural fields

Abstract

The establishment of rapid and efficient contamination detection methods in agricultural fields is of great significance for safeguarding agricultural production and human health, and for ensuring the healthy development of agricultural industries. As a booming analytical method, photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensors, which combine the advantages of electrochemical analysis and optical analysis, have received increasing research attention. Due to the complete separation of the excitation source (light) and the detection signal (current), the background signal of PEC sensors is greatly decreased, and their sensitivity is high. This review aims to cover the advances in PEC sensors for contamination analysis in agricultural fields over the past five years, including analysis of heavy metals, antibiotics, pesticides, and toxins. The future prospects in this field are also discussed.

Detection of food contaminants: A review of established rapid analytical techniques and their applications and limitations

“…In recent years, photoelectrochemical (PEC), as an emerging and booming analytical method, has attracted worldwide attention due to its unique advantages, such as rapid response, remarkable sensitivity, simple operation, and miniaturization (Zhou et al., 2021; Zhou & Tang, 2020). At present, the PEC method has been successfully applied in various fields, such as contamination analysis (Dong et al., 2022), environmental monitoring (Liu, Kim, & Cui, 2020), medical diagnosis (Sun et al., 2022), and food safety (Zhang, Liu, et al., 2021). Due to the separation of excitation source and response signal, the PEC method is characterized by lower background and higher sensitivity compared with conventional analytical methods (Jiang, Zhang, et al., 2022; Pang et al., 2021).…”

Recent advances in photoelectrochemical platforms based on porous materials for environmental pollutant detection

“…Recently, a signicant number of reviews on PEC detection sensors for environmental pollutant determination have been published. 11,16,[46][47][48][49][50] However, these studies focused on strategies for fabricating PEC detection systems and identifying the multiple contaminants, neglecting to discuss the effect of the presence of porous materials on the detection activity of PEC sensors. For instance, in 2020, Shu et al provided a comprehensive summary of current research in photoelectrochemical sensing, with a particular emphasis on material design and engineering to regulate photoelectrochemical sensing performance.…”

“…247 Therefore, extensive efforts have been made to trace these pesticides in the environment. 46,115,248,249 In 2020, Qin et al synthesized CdS nanocrystal-functionalized porous ultrathin MnO 2 nanosheet composites (CdS/MnO 2 ). 77 They established a linear relationship between the concentration of organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) and photocurrent by utilizing enzymatic etching of MnO 2 nanosheets and enzyme inhibition by OPs.…”

Development of broad-spectrum immunoassay with monoclonal antibody to detect five eugenols and study of their molecular recognition mechanism

“…Their simplicity, high sensitivity, specificity, and cost-effectiveness ideally compensate for the limitations of instrumental methods (X. Dong et al, 2022 ; Haiping et al, 2021). To date, there have been two reported immunochromatographic assays (ICAs) for EUGs.…”