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Recent Advances in Electrochemical Biosensors for Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Applications

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A special issue of Chemosensors (ISSN 2227-9040). This special issue belongs to the section "Electrochemical Devices and Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2023) | Viewed by 8283

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. ZhengRong Gu

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Guest Editor

Department of Agri&Biosystems Eng., South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007 USA
Interests: biosensors; electrochemical sensors; renewable graphene & advanced carbon materials; bioseparation technology (biomedical engineering, biopharma and biorefinery); tailored materials for biomedical engineering; catalysts of biorefinery; water purification and recovery; bio-dust fire monitoring and prevention; transmission electron microscope techniques for materials characterization and biomedical diagnosis; bioinspired silicon-carbon and silica materials

Dr. Shun Lu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, China
Interests: biosensors; electrochemical sensors; H₂ production; supercapacitor; sewage treatment; electroanalytical
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agricultural safety is a global concern and will remain a challenge to human health worldwide, as this area currently lacks fast, sensitive, efficient, and low-cost detective technology. Electrochemical biosensors have long been studied to help answer these concerns. Recent research progress regarding nanotechnology, efforts of miniaturization and connectivity enabled through the internet of things (IoT) has promoted electrochemical biosensors’ capabilities to a degree that they surely will play a major part of the answer to this global challenge. Surprisingly, however, the adaption of such electrochemical biosensors to function worldwide and include important aspects of sustainable agricultural, biological, and environmental applications has been neglected thus far.

In recent years, considerable efforts have been made regarding the development of functional materials with desirable properties (e.g., excellent selectivity, high stability, and high anti-inference ability) for electrochemical biosensors. Various functional materials, including metal compounds (oxides, sulfides, nitrides), quantum dots, metal–organic framework compounds, etc., were developed. The above functional materials endow electrochemical biosensors with fruitful applications, such as (bio)sensing of various agricultural targets (e.g., pesticide residues), biological targets (e.g., dopamine, uric acid, enzymes, and pathogenic microorganisms), and environmental pollutants (heavy-metal ions and toxic gases).

This Special Issue of Chemosensors focuses on the recent developments of electrochemical biosensors, with particular focus on their applications in agricultural, biological, and environmental applications. We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. ZhengRong Gu
Dr. Shun Lu
Guest Editors

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

electrochemistry
biosensor
sensing electrode
electrochemical analysis
nanomaterial
biomarker validation
pollutant assessment
agricultural safety
sustainable agriculture
environmental pollutants

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 2784 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Application of the OECT-Based In Vivo Biosensor Bioristor in Fruit Tree Monitoring to Improve Agricultural Sustainability

by Filippo Vurro, Edoardo Marchetti, Manuele Bettelli, Luigi Manfrini, Adele Finco, Carlo Sportolaro, Nicola Coppedè, Nadia Palermo, Maria Grazia Tommasini, Andrea Zappettini and Michela Janni

Chemosensors 2023, 11(7), 374; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/chemosensors11070374 - 04 Jul 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1473

Abstract

Water scarcity is a major concern in agriculture worldwide. Fruit trees are severely affected by water deprivation in terms of growth, fruit yield, and quality. Plant monitoring combined with efficient irrigation is pivotal to achieve good quality standards and improve agricultural sustainability. This study reports the use of in vivo sensing technology to monitor fruit tree species continuously, in real time and in vivo, through an Organic Electrochemical Transistor (OECT)-based biosensor called Bioristor. The sensor was applied to grapevines, apples, and kiwis, revealing its capability to trace the plant water status for the whole productive cycle. A correlation between the sensor response index (R) and environmental parameters such as air humidity and temperature were recorded for fruit species. The day/night oscillation of the ionic content in the transpiration stream varies during plant growth and fruit maturation and during severe drought stress. Bioristor promptly detected the occurrence of drought stress. The gate current (Igs) trend supports the reduction in the saturation of the system due to the lower water availability. The use of Bioristor-acquired indices can be used to improve precision irrigation techniques according to the real plant needs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Electrochemical Biosensors for Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Applications)

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16 pages, 5203 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Preparation of Reduced Graphene Oxide Sheets with Large Surface Area and Porous Structure for High-Sensitivity Humidity Sensor

by Seo Jin Kim, Hong Jun Park, Eun Seop Yoon and Bong Gill Choi

Chemosensors 2023, 11(5), 276; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/chemosensors11050276 - 04 May 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1770

Abstract

Humidity sensors provide environmental conditions suitable for several applications. However, they suffer from a limited reliable range originating from the low electrical conductivity and low water-sensitive sites of humidity-sensing materials. In this study, we developed high-sensitivity humidity sensors based on holey-reduced graphene oxide (HRGO) with a large surface area (274.5 m²/g) and an abundant pore structure. HRGO was prepared via the H₂O₂-etching-reaction-assisted hydrothermal processing of graphene oxide sheets. The resulting humidity sensor exhibited high sensitivity (−0.04317 log Z/%RH, R² = 0.9717), a fast response time (<3 s), and long-term stability over 28 days. The impedance responses of the humidity sensor were almost similar between the mechanically standard and bent states. Furthermore, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was performed to understand the humidity-sensing mechanism of the HRGO materials. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Electrochemical Biosensors for Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Applications)

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15 pages, 4239 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Phage Display Affibodies Combined with AuNPs@Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ for Ultra-Sensitive Electrochemiluminescence Detection of Abrin

by Shuai Liu, Zhaoyang Tong, Chunying Jiang, Chuan Gao, Jianjie Xu, Xihui Mu, Bing Liu, Bin Du, Zhiwei Liu and Pengjie Zhang

Chemosensors 2022, 10(5), 184; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/chemosensors10050184 - 13 May 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1804

Abstract

Abrin is a cytotoxin with strong lethality, which is a serious threat to human health and public safety, and thus, highly sensitive detection methods are urgently needed. The phage display affibody has two major modules, among which, the affibody fragment, with small molecular weight, high affinity and easy preparation, can be used for the specific recognition of the target, and the phage shell, with numerous protein copies, can be used as a carrier for the massive enrichment of signal molecules, and thus is particularly suitable as a sensitive probe for signal amplification in high-sensitivity biosensors. In this study, with antibody-coated magnetic microspheres as capture probes, Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ and biotin dual-labeled phage display affibodies as the specific signal probes and AuNPs@Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ (Ru(bpy)₃²⁺-coated gold nanoparticles) as the signal amplification nanomaterials, a new electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensor with a four-level sandwich structure of “magnetic capture probe-abrin-phage display affibody-AuNPs@Ru(bpy)₃²⁺” was constructed for abrin detection. In this detection mode, AuNPs@Ru(bpy)₃²⁺, a gold nanocomposite prepared rapidly via electrical interaction, contained an extremely high density of signal molecules, and the phage display affibodies with powerful loading capacity were not only labeled with Ru(bpy)₃²⁺, but also enriched with AuNPs@Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ in large amounts. These designs greatly improved the detection capability of the sensor, ultimately achieving the ultra-sensitive detection of abrin. The limit of detection (LOD) was 4.1 fg/mL (3δ/S), and the quantification range was from 5 fg/mL to 5 pg/mL. The sensor had good reproducibility and specificity and performed well in the test of simulated samples. This study expanded the application of affibodies in the field of biosensing and also deeply explored the signal amplification potential of phage display technology, which is of high value for the construction of simple and efficient sensors with high sensitivity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Electrochemical Biosensors for Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Applications)

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Review

Jump to: Research

16 pages, 1848 KiB

Open AccessReview

Recent Advances in Cyanobacterial Cytotoxin Biosensors Focused on Cylindrospermopsin

by Yein Kwon, Yejin Yoon, Moonbong Jang, Sunggu Kang, Chulhwan Park and Taek Lee

Chemosensors 2023, 11(7), 401; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/chemosensors11070401 - 18 Jul 2023

Viewed by 1114

Abstract

Cylindrospermopsin (CYN) is a freshwater algal toxin produced during the proliferation of harmful cyanobacteria, known as cyanobacterial algal blooms (cyano-HABs). Recently, the effects of global warming have facilitated the growth of cyano-HABs, leading to their worldwide occurrence and an increase in toxin-related damage to aquatic ecosystems. CYN is known to exhibit strong cell toxicity upon ingestion, inhibiting protein synthesis and glutathione production and, ultimately, leading to cell death. In addition to cell toxicity, CYN exhibits skin toxicity, genotoxicity, and hepatotoxicity. It can also affect other organs, such as the kidneys (causing tubular necrosis), thymus (causing atrophy), and heart (causing pericardial and myocardial hemorrhage). The standard method used for CYN detection to date, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), has several drawbacks: it is complex, time-consuming, and requires trained researchers. Recently, biosensors have been shown to offer numerous advantages, such as their simplicity, portability, and rapidity, making them suitable for onsite applications. Consequently, recent studies have actively explored the latest biosensor-based technologies for CYN detection. This review discusses the recent advances in CYN detection platforms that utilize several types of biosensors. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Electrochemical Biosensors for Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Applications)

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17 pages, 3429 KiB

Open AccessReview

Biochar for Water Pollution Control: From Sensing to Decontamination

by Timea Ema Krajčovičová, Michal Hatala, Pavol Gemeiner, Ján Híveš, Tomáš Mackuľak, Katarína Nemčeková and Veronika Svitková

Chemosensors 2023, 11(7), 394; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/chemosensors11070394 - 14 Jul 2023

Viewed by 1493

Abstract

Biochar, a biologically originated carbon-rich material derived from the oxygen-limited pyrolysis of biomass, is usually added to the soil for its enrichment, increasing its water-holding capacity and pH. This revolutionary material thus contributes to a reduction in the overall environmental impact and mitigation of climate change. Due to the beneficial properties of this material, especially for electrochemical applications (large active surface area, conductivity, etc.), biochar demonstrates an extremely high capacity for the adsorption and detection of micropollutants simultaneously. However, finding the optimal conditions for the adsorptive and electrochemical properties of prepared biochar-based sensors is crucial. The adsorption efficiency should be sufficient to remove pollutants, even from complex matrices; on the other hand, the electrochemical properties, such as conductivity and charge transfer resistance, are key factors concerning the sensing ability. Therefore, the balanced design of biochar can ensure both the usability and the effectiveness of sensing. To enhance levels of electroactivity that are already high, the pre- or post-modification of biochar can be performed. Such recycled carbon-based materials could be promising candidates among other electrochemical sensing platforms. In this study, different biochar modifications are presented. Utilizing important biochar properties, it should be possible to create a bifunctional platform for removing micropollutants from water systems and simultaneously confirming purification levels via their detection. We reviewed the use of biochar-based materials for the effective removal of micropollutants and the methods for their detection in water matrices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Electrochemical Biosensors for Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Applications)

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