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.

Controlling Redox Enzyme Orientation at Planar Electrodes

“…This accomplishment is due to the identification and purification of new redox enzymes that are able to act as a recognition element, combined with the development of new conductive matrices for their efficient immobilization, essentially on the basis of large-surface-area nanomaterials. Electrochemical biosensors are used in many different domains, among which medical applications [5], food safety, and environmental monitoring [6] are those undergoing the largest developments. The earliest electrochemical biosensor for biomedical applications dates back to 1962, and uses the redox enzyme glucose oxidase to measure sugar in blood [7].…”

Green synthesis and physiochemical characterization of nickel oxide nanoparticles: Interaction studies with Calf thymus DNA

“…However, when the same NiO NPs sample was left for a few days, and DLS studies repeated as given in Figure S2, agglomeration caused the hydrodynamic diameter to increase to 159 nm with an increase in polydispersity. Even after trying various methods of synthesis of magnetic NPs, long‐term agglomeration, and stability still remained a challenge . This implied that biosensor fabrication should be done immediately after NiO NPs suspension preparation or after surface modification to increase stability.…”

“…Quite recently, this technology was being put to use for detection of environmental pollutants. Aptameric nanobiosensors using gold NPs and colorimetric transduction methods were developed to detect the organic insecticide acetamiprid, with a detection limit of 5 nM, whereas platinum NPs were used to detect the same ligand using electrochemical transduction with a detection limit 1 pM . Such nanobiosensors hold great promise, especially when accurate detection is required, along with ease of manufacture and low cost of the device.…”

Wastewater remediation via combo-technology

“…(iv) Sensing and Monitoring Enzymes are an excellent sensor in monitoring various water pollutants in treated water due to their catalytic specificity [87,88]. The most commonly used enzymebased biosensors are being used to monitor pollutants like carbamates, phosphates, organophosphates, alcohols, ammonia, cyanide, formaldehyde, organonitriles, phenol, zinc, and BOD as well as contamination by sewage.…”