Recent Progress in Biosensors for Environmental Monitoring: A Review

Abstract

The environmental monitoring has been one of the priorities at the European and global scale due to the close relationship between the environmental pollution and the human health/socioeconomic development. In this field, the biosensors have been widely employed as cost-effective, fast, in situ, and real-time analytical techniques. The need of portable, rapid, and smart biosensing devices explains the recent development of biosensors with new transduction materials, obtained from nanotechnology, and for multiplexed pollutant detection, involving multidisciplinary experts. This review article provides an update on recent progress in biosensors for the monitoring of air, water, and soil pollutants in real conditions such as pesticides, potentially toxic elements, and small organic molecules including toxins and endocrine disrupting chemicals.

Keywords: antibodies; aptamers; biosensors; environmental monitoring; enzymes; pesticides; pollutants.

Figure 1

(A) TEM images of (a) Fe₃O₄, (b) gold nanoparticles, and (c) Fe₃O₄@gold nanocomposites; (B) square wave voltammetry measurements of methyl parathion with different concentrations between (a) 0.5 and (j) 1000 ng mL⁻¹; and (C) calibration curves obtained with (a) and without (b) gold nanoparticles (Reproduced from Zhao et al. [8] with permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry).

Figure 2

(A) current results of biosensor with and without macroalgae; and (B) total concentration of methyl parathion obtained using the biosensor and SPME-GC/MS over 10 weeks in the same collecting point on a Brazilian lake (Reprinted from Nunes et al. [14], Copyright (2014), with permission from Elsevier).

Figure 3

(A) SEM images of NiCo₂S₄; and (B) differential pulse voltammetry response of the biosensor for concentrations of methyl parathion between 0 and 10 ng mL⁻¹ (Reprinted from Peng et al. [15], Copyright (2017), with permission from Elsevier).

Figure 4

Fluorescence emission spectra obtained with the biosensor with the dye (curve a), with the DNAzyme and Pb²⁺ (curve b), and with the dye, DNAzyme/carboxylated magnetic beads, and Pb²⁺ (curve c); λ_ex = 490 nm and λ_em = 530 nm (Reprinted from [52] with kind permission from Springer).

Figure 5

(A) working principle of fluorescence immunosensor for the detection of okadaic acid; (B) draw gate for the detection of magnetic beads and measure the fluorescence intensity; and (C) typical fluorescence intensity curves of fluorescent immunosensor under different okadaic acid concentrations. OA: okadaic acid; MBs: magnetic beads; MAb: monoclonal antibodies; QDs-IgG: quantum dots labelled with secondary antibodies IgG (© 2017, Pan et al. [63]. Originally published in “A novel quantum dot fluorescence immunosensor based on magnetic beads and portable flow cytometry for detection of okadaic acid” under Creative Commons 4.0 license).

Figure 6

(A) photocurrent change of the aptasensor in different concentrations of 17β-estradiol from 0 (response a) to 80 pM (response n); (B) curve of ΔI corresponding to the concentration of 17β-estradiol from 0 to 80 pM (ΔI was calculated by I₀ subtracting I, where I₀ and I are the photocurrent before and after incubation of 17β-estradiol). The inset is the linear relationship between ΔI/I₀ and the logarithm of 17β-estradiol concentrations from 0.05 to 15 pM; and (C) selectivity of the assay for 17β-estradiol on the aptasensor. The inset are the structural formulas of 17β-estradiol and the tested interferents (Reprinted with permission from Fan et al. [70]. Copyright (2014) American Chemical Society).