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

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          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.

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          Most cited references125

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          A review on emerging contaminants in wastewaters and the environment: current knowledge, understudied areas and recommendations for future monitoring.

          This review identifies understudied areas of emerging contaminant (EC) research in wastewaters and the environment, and recommends direction for future monitoring. Non-regulated trace organic ECs including pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs and personal care products are focused on due to ongoing policy initiatives and the expectant broadening of environmental legislation. These ECs are ubiquitous in the aquatic environment, mainly derived from the discharge of municipal wastewater effluents. Their presence is of concern due to the possible ecological impact (e.g., endocrine disruption) to biota within the environment. To better understand their fate in wastewaters and in the environment, a standardised approach to sampling is needed. This ensures representative data is attained and facilitates a better understanding of spatial and temporal trends of EC occurrence. During wastewater treatment, there is a lack of suspended particulate matter analysis due to further preparation requirements and a lack of good analytical approaches. This results in the under-reporting of several ECs entering wastewater treatment works (WwTWs) and the aquatic environment. Also, sludge can act as a concentrating medium for some chemicals during wastewater treatment. The majority of treated sludge is applied directly to agricultural land without analysis for ECs. As a result there is a paucity of information on the fate of ECs in soils and consequently, there has been no driver to investigate the toxicity to exposed terrestrial organisms. Therefore a more holistic approach to environmental monitoring is required, such that the fate and impact of ECs in all exposed environmental compartments are studied. The traditional analytical approach of applying targeted screening with low resolution mass spectrometry (e.g., triple quadrupoles) results in numerous chemicals such as transformation products going undetected. These can exhibit similar toxicity to the parent EC, demonstrating the necessity of using an integrated analytical approach which compliments targeted and non-targeted screening with biological assays to measure ecological impact. With respect to current toxicity testing protocols, failure to consider the enantiomeric distribution of chiral compounds found in the environment, and the possible toxicological differences between enantiomers is concerning. Such information is essential for the development of more accurate environmental risk assessment.
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            Electrochemical Biosensors - Sensor Principles and Architectures

            Quantification of biological or biochemical processes are of utmost importance for medical, biological and biotechnological applications. However, converting the biological information to an easily processed electronic signal is challenging due to the complexity of connecting an electronic device directly to a biological environment. Electrochemical biosensors provide an attractive means to analyze the content of a biological sample due to the direct conversion of a biological event to an electronic signal. Over the past decades several sensing concepts and related devices have been developed. In this review, the most common traditional techniques, such as cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, chronopotentiometry, impedance spectroscopy, and various field-effect transistor based methods are presented along with selected promising novel approaches, such as nanowire or magnetic nanoparticle-based biosensing. Additional measurement techniques, which have been shown useful in combination with electrochemical detection, are also summarized, such as the electrochemical versions of surface plasmon resonance, optical waveguide lightmode spectroscopy, ellipsometry, quartz crystal microbalance, and scanning probe microscopy. The signal transduction and the general performance of electrochemical sensors are often determined by the surface architectures that connect the sensing element to the biological sample at the nanometer scale. The most common surface modification techniques, the various electrochemical transduction mechanisms, and the choice of the recognition receptor molecules all influence the ultimate sensitivity of the sensor. New nanotechnology-based approaches, such as the use of engineered ion-channels in lipid bilayers, the encapsulation of enzymes into vesicles, polymersomes, or polyelectrolyte capsules provide additional possibilities for signal amplification. In particular, this review highlights the importance of the precise control over the delicate interplay between surface nano-architectures, surface functionalization and the chosen sensor transducer principle, as well as the usefulness of complementary characterization tools to interpret and to optimize the sensor response.
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              Electrochemical biosensors.

              Electrochemical biosensors combine the sensitivity of electroanalytical methods with the inherent bioselectivity of the biological component. The biological component in the sensor recognizes its analyte resulting in a catalytic or binding event that ultimately produces an electrical signal monitored by a transducer that is proportional to analyte concentration. Some of these sensor devices have reached the commercial stage and are routinely used in clinical, environmental, industrial, and agricultural applications. The two classes of electrochemical biosensors, biocatalytic devices and affinity sensors, will be discussed in this critical review to provide an accessible introduction to electrochemical biosensors for any scientist (110 references).
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Biosensors (Basel)
                Biosensors (Basel)
                biosensors
                Biosensors
                MDPI
                2079-6374
                24 March 2018
                June 2018
                : 8
                : 2
                : 29
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Tecnologico de Monterrey, School of Engineering and Sciences, Campus Monterrey, Ave. Eugenio Garza Sada 2501, CP 64849, Monterrey, N.L., Mexico; gushdzv@ 123456gmail.com (G.H.-V.); eduardo.sosa@ 123456itesm.mx (J.E.S.-H.); sarasaldarriaga.h@ 123456gmail.com (S.S.-H.); angel.vr@ 123456itesm.mx (A.M.V.-R.)
                [2 ]Exact and Natural Sciences, Institute of Biology, University of Antioquia, St. 67 No. 53-108, Medellín 050021, Colombia
                [3 ]Microsystems Technologies Laboratories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
                [4 ]Division of Engineering in Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
                [5 ]Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
                Author notes
                [* ]Correspondence: r.parra@ 123456itesm.mx (R.P.-S.); hafiz.iqbal@ 123456itesm.mx or hafiz.iqbal@ 123456my.westminster.ac.uk (H.M.N.I.); Tel.: +52-81-8358-2000 (ext. 5534) (R.P.-S.); +52-81-8358-2000 (ext. 5679) (H.M.N.I.)
                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5441-4768
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0249-613X
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4958-5797
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4855-2720
                Article
                biosensors-08-00029
                10.3390/bios8020029
                6023016
                29587374
                f100c723-af7c-491c-8a5d-f3548c1a2bb1
                © 2018 by the authors.

                Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is 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/).

                History
                : 27 January 2018
                : 23 March 2018
                Categories
                Review

                electrochemical biosensors,screen-printed electrodes,nanowire sensors,paper-based biosensors,emerging contaminants,toxic heavy elements,detection

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