Electrochemical Biosensors: A Solution to Pollution Detection with Reference to Environmental Contaminants

Abstract

The increasing environmental pollution with particular reference to emerging contaminants, toxic heavy elements, and other hazardous agents is a serious concern worldwide. Considering this global issue, there is an urgent need to design and develop strategic measuring techniques with higher efficacy and precision to detect a broader spectrum of numerous contaminants. The development of precise instruments can further help in real-time and in-process monitoring of the generation and release of environmental pollutants from different industrial sectors. Moreover, real-time monitoring can also reduce the excessive consumption of several harsh chemicals and reagents with an added advantage of on-site determination of contaminant composition prior to discharge into the environment. With key scientific advances, electrochemical biosensors have gained considerable attention to solve this problem. Electrochemical biosensors can be an excellent fit as an analytical tool for monitoring programs to implement legislation. Herein, we reviewed the current trends in the use of electrochemical biosensors as novel tools to detect various contaminant types including toxic heavy elements. A particular emphasis was given to screen-printed electrodes, nanowire sensors, and paper-based biosensors and their role in the pollution detection processes. Towards the end, the work is wrapped up with concluding remarks and future perspectives. In summary, electrochemical biosensors and related areas such as bioelectronics, and (bio)-nanotechnology seem to be growing areas that will have a marked influence on the development of new bio-sensing strategies in future studies.

Keywords: detection; electrochemical biosensors; emerging contaminants; nanowire sensors; paper-based biosensors; screen-printed electrodes; toxic heavy elements.

Figure 1

Scheme of an electrochemical biosensor. Biological sensing elements are coupled to electrodes. These traduce the signal to deliver a readable output.

Figure 2

Four different classes and sub-classes of biosensors based on the type of transducer.

Figure 3

The neurotoxicity and other major consequences of CYP (Reproduced from Ref. [21] with permission from Elsevier).

Figure 4

Environmental applications of SPEs and nanowire-based biosensors.

Figure 5

Scheme of the steps involved in the preparation and functioning of the 3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (3-HBDH)/thionine (THI)/reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) biosensor. (Reproduced from Ref. [37], an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)).

Figure 6

Paper-based electrochemical detection of chlorate. (Reproduced from Ref. [131], an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)).