Progress on electrochemical sensors for the determination of heavy metal ions from contaminated water

With the development of modern industry, heavy metal pollution is increasingly becoming the focus of government and citizen concern around the globe. Some heavy metals such as Pb, Hg, As, Cr and Cd are highly toxic and hazardous to the human health due to their non-biodegradable nature even at lower levels of exposure. Therefore, it is extremely important and necessary to develop effective and accurate techniques for the detection of heavy metal ions. In this review, various electrochemical sensors for the determination of heavy metal ions are introduced, including electrochemical enzyme sensor, electrochemical immunosensor, electrochemical nucleic acid sensor, the electrochemical whole cell biosensor, imprinted sensor and novel nanomaterial modified electrochemical sensors. The advancements in the techniques of detecting heavy metals and the future development trends of these methods are discussed.