Graphitic carbon nitride and its nanocomposites-based sensors for detection of pharmaceutical effluents in food, ecological and biological samples: A mini-review

Pharmaceutical effluents (PEs) have emerged as a global threat to mankind owing to their adverse health effects on humans. Generally, PEs are acquainted with the environment via direct emissions from drug manufacturing plants, unplanned disposal of unused or expired medicines, unprocessed patient/animal excretion, aquafarming, etc. Unlike other pollutions, PE-based contaminations can lead to catastrophic consequences via genotoxic, ecotoxicological, mutagenic effects, etc., causing behavioural changes, reproductive damage, and chronic damage. Therefore, a susceptible detection platform for PE traces in different sources like water bodies, human biofluids, etc., is in high demand. Owing to their high surface area, chemical stability, and electrocatalytic activity, the 2D graphitic carbon nitride (gCN) has gathered significant research interest. It has been examined for the electrochemical detection of PE traces in different ecological and biological samples. In this mini-review, we discuss the exciting advancements in the design and fabrication of gCN and its nanocomposite-based electrochemical sensors for other trace-level detection of different PEs in ecological and biological systems. The table in this review provides a clear insight into the reported gCN-based electrochemical sensors and their performance analysis towards sensing of EFs. The anticipated developments are discussed with current limitations in gCN-based electrochemical sensors for PE detection.