Recent trends in nanomaterial-modified electrodes for electroanalytical applications

Electroanalytical devices have entered into the entirely new phase due to the utilization of the nanomaterials for the fabrication of electrochemical sensors. Nanomaterials with controlled morphologies and better surface functionalization offer ultrasensitive and selective electrode surfaces for electrochemical detection. The recent literature search on the fabrication of electrochemical sensors clearly reveals a shift toward morphologically controlled and suitably functionalized electrode modifiers to achieve robust electrochemical sensors. This review is specifically focused on the recent trends in the utilization of the various nanomaterials as modifiers in electrochemical sensing. These materials include fullerene, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanohorns, graphene, 3D graphene, carbon quantum dots, nanostructured polymers, and morphologically controlled metal/non-metal nanostructures. Such materials have been applied in the form of wires, nanorods, nanoribbons, core-shell, nanohorns to improve the surface kinetics and specificity of the modified surface toward electroanalytical detection.