Recent advances in nanomaterial-based electrochemical detection of antibiotics: Challenges and future perspectives

The continuous need for food resources by humans and animals has led to extensive use of antibiotics as essential medicines. However, we are now facing serious environmental contamination of antibiotics and the associated health concerns because of their uncontrolled disposal. In an effort to resolve this problem, nanostructured electrochemical platforms comprising of diverse materials (e.g., carbonaceous nanoparticles, metal nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles, metal-organic frameworks, and quantum dots) have been proposed to detect antibiotic residues. Despite the significant progress achieved in such research fields, further efforts are still required to develop advanced electrochemical sensors with the aid of multi-functional nanomaterials and to ensure efficient portability for such sensors with enhaced communicability. Therefore, the present review summarizes an in-depth evaluation of the nanostructured electrochemical sensing system for antibiotics residues in diverse matrices (e.g., human fluids, environmental media, and food/beverages samples). The present review begins with a brief introduction to antibiotics followed by a survey on the existing electroanalytical techniques to highlight the significance of nanomaterial-based electrochemical sensing techniques for antibiotics in diverse matrices. Finally, the review provides an outlook on the future concepts of this research field to help upgrade the sensing techniques for antibiotics.