Tunable construction of electrochemical sensors for chlorophenol detection

Abstract

As one typical class of the most persistent organic pollutants, chlorophenols (CPs) have gained growing concern because of their severe threats to the environment and public health. Effective monitoring of CPs has become an urgent and challenging issue. Electrochemical sensing has been considered as a feasible approach to meet the fast-growing demand for onsite and real-time detection of CPs. This review aims to provide a comprehensive and critical assessment of the technical advancement in developing electrochemical sensors for chlorophenol detection. It not only discusses detection systems, mechanisms and material architectures, but also places special emphasis on the tunable construction of working electrodes, which is normally based on a common working electrode (e.g., noble metal, carbon-based, ITO glass or flexible types) modified with various active materials such as biomaterials, metallic materials, carbon nanomaterials, metal–organic frameworks, intrinsically conducting polymers, clays etc. Furthermore, a perspective on future research and technical commercialization, along with the potential challenges in the electrochemical detection of CPs is provided aiming to guide and inspire a new phase of research effort.