Nanomaterial-sensors for herbicides detection using electrochemical techniques and prospect applications

Environmental pollution caused by the excessive use of pesticides, especially the overuse of herbicides to protect the desirable crops from weeds, has exerted more serious threat over ecological system and human health. Electrochemical (EC) sensors overcome the limitations traditional detection approaches facing and provide enormous potential for sensitive, effective, and low-cost detection of herbicides. In this work, this review offers an insight into the detection mechanism of EC sensors platform and the current research process of four sensing methods including electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry, and square wave voltammetry for the detection of herbicides. In addition, the recent advancement of EC sensors based on carbon materials, noble metals and metal oxides nanoparticles for quantitatively determining herbicides were also depicted and discussed systematically together with future outlook. [Display omitted] •Overview of electrochemical techniques for herbicides detection published in recent years.•Review summarizes the development of different electrochemical techniques.•Future prospect on electrochemical techniques for nano-plastics detection is proposed.