Inner filter effect-based fluorescence assays toward environmental pesticides and antibiotics

The abuse of pesticides and antibiotics has seriously threatened environmental health and public safety. Precise and efficient monitoring the residual levels of environmental pesticides and antibiotics has become one of the most effective ways for establishing proper warning-early, traceability and management of pesticides and antibiotics, safeguarding the environmental and ecological health. Owing to avoiding the tedious surface modification or labeling processes, inner-filter effect (IFE)-based fluorescence assays has recently attractive interests on accurate, reliable, and economic reporting environmental pesticides and antibiotics. Given the tremendous progress of this field and to promote its further development, we systematically combed the recent advances of IFE-based fluorescence assays in monitoring the residual levels of environmental pesticides (e.g., carbamates, nicotine, organophosphates, and chloronicotinoids) and antibiotics (e.g., aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, β-lactams, and nitro antibiotics), discussed the urgent challenges, and looked into the future perspectives. We envision that this review will contribute to the development of commercial IFE-based point-of-care fluorescence assays toward environmental pesticides and antibiotics for safeguarding the public and environmental health.