Structural design of nanosize-metal–organic framework-based sensors for detection of organophosphorus pesticides in food and water samples: current challenges and future prospects

Organophosphorus pesticide (OPP) is regarded as an important food-chain and environmental contaminant that causes primary acute toxicity and numerous severe health issues. Therefore, the minute concentration of OPP present in food materials and environments needs to be identified before it causes any brutal harm to lives. Despite the plenty of merits of qualitative and quantitative sensing methods, the lower sensitivity, poor selectivity, detection speed, etc. towards the interest OPP are major drawbacks. Nanoparticles have attracted a lot of attention because of their unique and intriguing features, which have a variety of applications including sensor development as compared to their bulk counterparts. Recently, the structural design of nanosize-metal–organic framework (MOF) is gaining huge consideration from researchers for sensing applications owing to their versatile and tunable properties. Additionally, MOF-based sensors offer the rapid, simplistic, selective, and sensitive sensing of interest analyte. The present review provides brief information about OPPs and their toxicities. The emerging trends of structural design of nanosize-MOF including their properties have been summarized. Finally, nanosize-MOF-based fluorescent sensors, electrochemical sensors, and colorimetric sensors have been discussed with central focus on sensitivity and selectivity to OPPs. Due to the higher surface area, rich topology, ease of structural tunability and functionalization, tunable pore size, plenty of binding sites, good adsorption potential, excellent charge conductivity, and chemical stability, etc., MOF based sensors are endowed with the ability of OPPs detection upto aM. Hence, MOF as nanoporous sensors can be preferred as an excellent alternative for highly sensitive and selective recognition of OPPs in food and water samples. Structural design of nanosize-MOF-based sensor for highly sensitive and selective detection of OPPs in food samples