Recent trends in nanostructured carbon-based electrochemical sensors for the detection and remediation of persistent toxic substances in real-time analysis

Abstract

There are rising issues regarding the presence and discharge of emerging pollutants (EPs) in the ecosystem, including pharmaceutical waste, organic contaminants, heavy metals, pesticides, antibiotics and dyes. The human populace is typically exposed to a variety of EPs and toxins, such as those found in the soil, air, food supply, and drinkable water. Thus, creating new purification methods and effective pollution detection tools is a significant task. Several researchers globally have created unique analytical techniques including chromatography/mass and gaseous atomic absorption spectroscopy for the identification of contaminants to date. The aforementioned techniques have excellent sensitivity, but they are costly, time-consuming, costly, need sophisticated expertise to operate and are difficult to execute due to their enormous scale. Electrochemical sensors with resilience, specificity, sensibility, and real-time observations are thus been designed as a solution to the aforementioned shortcomings. The development of innovative systems to assures human and environmental protection has been aided by significant improvements in nanostructured carbon-based electrochemical sensor platforms. These platforms show enticing characteristics including excellent electrocatalytic operations, increased electrical conductance, and efficient surface region when compared to conventional methods. This paper intends to provide an analysis of low-cost nanostructured carbon-based electrochemical sensors from 2015 to 2022 that could detect and eradicate components of EPs from various origins. This review discusses the characteristics and uses of nanostructured carbon-based electrochemical sensors, which include carbon nanotubes, MXenes, carbon dots/graphene dots, graphene/graphene oxide, and other materials. These sensors are used to detect EPs such as heavy metal ions (Pb(II), Cd(II), Hg(II), etc), pharmaceutical waste, dyes and pesticides. Additionally, processing and characterization techniques, including differential-pulsed voltammograms, SW voltammograms, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, fluorescence, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are discussed in detail to examine the prospects of these carbon-based electrochemical sensors and associated detection mechanisms. It is intended that this analysis would stimulate the development of new detection methods for protecting public health and restoring the environment.