The incorporation of nanomaterials into electrochemical sensors is an attractive approach towards the improvement of the sensitivity of amperometry and also can provide improved sensor selectivity and stability. This review (with 137 references) details the current state of the art and new trends in nanomaterial-based electrochemical sensing of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and nitric oxide (NO) in cells or released by cells. The article starts with a discussion of the significance of the three analytes, and this is followed by three sections that summarize the electrochemical detection schemes for H2O2, H2S and NO. Each section first summarizes the respective physiological roles, and then reviews electrochemical sensors based on the use of carbon nanomaterials, noble metal nanomaterials, metal oxide nanomaterials, and layered doubled hydroxides. The materials are compiled in three tables along with figures of merit for the various sensors.
In the present work, a simple, rapid and sensitive sample pre-treatment technique, dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) coupled with liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection (LC-FLD), has been developed to determine carbamate (carbaryl) and organophosphorus (triazophos) pesticide residues in soil samples. Methanol was first used as extraction solvent for the extraction of pesticides from the soil samples and then as dispersive solvent in the DLLME procedure. Under the optimum extraction conditions, the linearity was obtained in the concentration range of 0.1–1,000 ng g−1 for carbaryl and 1–5,000 ng g−1 for triazophos, respectively. Correlation coefficients varied from 0.9997 to 0.9999. The limits of detection (LODs), based on signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 3, ranged from 14 to 110 pg g−1. The relative standard deviation (RSDs, for 20.0 ng g−1 of each pesticide) varied from 1.96 to 4.24% (n = 6). The relative recoveries of two pesticides from soil A1, A2 and A3 at spiking levels of 10.0, 20.0 and 50.0 ng g−1 were in the range of 88.2–108.8%, 80.8–110.7% and 81.0–111.1%, respectively. The results demonstrated that DLLME was a sensitive and accurate method to determine the target pesticides, at trace levels, in soils.