Carbon Materials for Organophosphate Pesticide Sensing

Abstract

Organophosphates are mainly used as pesticides to protect crops from pests. Because organophosphate pesticides’ use has expanded dramatically worldwide, accurate monitoring of their concentrations in the environment and food has become of utmost importance. Once considered acutely toxic due to acetylcholinesterase inhibition, nowadays organophosphates are classified as extremely dangerous compounds, with a broad spectrum of toxicity types, by the World Health Organization. Having in mind their extensive use and diverse harmful effects, it is necessary to develop easy, rapid, and highly sensitive methods for organophosphate detection. Regardless of numerous conventional techniques for organophosphate detection, the construction of portable sensors is required to make routine analysis possible. Extensive literature on the different sensors for organophosphate detection is available. Many of them rely on the use of various carbon materials. There are many classes of carbon materials used in sensing element construction, as well as supporting materials. This review focuses on electrochemical and optical sensors based on carbon materials. Special attention is paid to the selectivity, sensitivity, stability, and reusability of reviewed sensors.