Recent progress in advanced materials for electrochemical determination of phenolic contaminants

Phenolic contaminants are one of the great concerned environmental pollutants, which seriously threaten the ecological environment and human health. It is vital to develop cost-effective and easy-operation sensing platform for rapid detection. Electrochemical sensors have proven to be an effect sensing platform and have made remarkable progress. Advanced materials with unique structures and multifunctionalities are ideal recognition element and electronic transducer for improving the detection sensitivity, selectivity and accuracy. In this review, the most recent progress in advanced materials-based electrochemical sensors and their application for phenol contaminants in latest five years have been critically reviewed, including carbon nanomaterials, metal–organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, 2D transition metal carbides or nitrides, transition metal dichalcogenides and molecularly imprinted polymers. The detailed sensing mechanism and analytical performance of advanced materials sensors for phenol contaminants are addressed. The main challenges and future perspectives for the development of high-performance sensor are discussed, which help to open new avenues of the sensing techniques for phenolic contaminants.