Advanced Plasmonic Nanosensors for Monitoring of Environmental Pollutants

Water is polluted day by day with biological and chemical toxins that can pose a serious threat to human health, animals and ecosystems. The regular identification and monitoring of biological and chemical toxins in water resources is the first step of the preventive method. The devices used in traditional detection methods such as adsorption and chromatography combined with mass spectrometry are not easy to transport for analysis and involve laborious preliminary sample preparation steps. However, the developments in nanosensors prepared with nanomaterials provide solutions to these challenges. Nanomaterials such as gold nanoparticles, graphene and quantum dots are often preferred for the surface preparation of plasmonic nanosensors for the selective, sensitive and label-free detection of very low concentrations of pollutants in water. There are different plasmonic nanosensors such as electrochemical, colorimetry and optical sensors prepared using different nanomaterials for the determination of environmental pollutants. These different detection nanosensors also have many advantages and disadvantages. In this review, the use of different nanomaterials in different types of plasmonic nanosensors for the determination of environmental pollutants, their modification and their effects on performance in terms of signal enhancement will also be discussed. When the studies in the literature are examined, although many articles have been published on the detection of pollutants in water, the number of publications specific to nanomaterial-based plasmonic nanosensors for detection is quite limited. In this review, we focused on the use of different nanomaterials in the preparation of nanosensor surfaces for the detection of environmental pollutants, and the preparation, optimization, experimental analysis and application areas of different plasmonic nanosensors made in the literature for detection methods Recent developments in plasmonic nanosensors, nanomaterials such as gold nanoparticles, graphene and quantum dots provide ultra-sensitive detection at the molecular level, leading to extraordinary developments. Nanomaterials have important plasmonic properties and are preferred for the selective, sensitive and label-free detection of very low water pollutant concentrations. In studies conducted in the literature, it has been observed that environmental pollutants such as toxin, bacteria, heavy metal ions, pesticides, especially in water, are determined and analyzed. In these review, it was observed that the sensitive and selective properties of nanomaterial-based nanosensors yielded results with low detection limits. The current review includes developments and application-oriented progress of nanomaterial-based plasmonic nanosensors, especially for the detection and quantification of various pollutants and environmental pollutants in water.