State‐of‐the‐art electrochemical sensors for quantitative detection of pesticides

Abstract

Pesticides are hazardous chemicals that are spread on crops to protect from pests or insects. These are widely used in agriculture as well as for domestic purposes, which not only affect plants and animals but also harm the human body. Therefore, detection of these harmful pesticides is of utmost importance. Conventional methods of pesticide detection are costly, time–consuming and need manpower to perform analysis; however, electrochemical sensing of pesticides is emerging as one of the best current approaches. Since, these sensors exhibit the capability of detecting pesticides onsite, easy fabrication, high selectivity and sensitivity, hence are preferred ones from the forensic point of view. Although, there have been several studies conducted on the sensing of pesticides but this study mainly focuses on electrochemical sensing of pesticides using specific nanomaterials such as nanoparticles, nanocomposites, metal–organic framework (MOF) and 2‐dimensional materials. Additionally, this review also comprises of the comparison of analytical conditions including limit of detection of the aforementioned technique, future perspectives and challenges associated with the development of next generation sensors. Therefore this review, in a broad perspective, provides information that would be useful for the fabrication of new electrochemical sensors and their applicability in the fields of chemistry, forensic science, food technology, material science, environmental science, nanoscience and biotechnology. From the study conducted through this review, it was observed that AuNPs are the mostly used nanoparticles where enzymatic nanosensor with coating of AuNPs along with fluorine doped tin oxide exhibited good activity for the detection of pesticides.