Recent advances on highly sensitive plasmonic nanomaterial enabled sensors for the detection of agrotoxins: Current progress and future perspective

Agrotoxins, such as agrochemical residues and mycotoxins, pollute the environment and have potentially adverse effects on human life and ecosystem. Excessive use of agrochemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers may increase crop production, however, leads to toxic residue accumulation on farms. Concomitantly, the emergence of various fungus-associated toxins in fields can have adverse effects on human health. Currently, there are few methods available for monitoring these harmful substances, making it imperative to develop a sensor that can detect and quantify agrotoxin residues in the environment efficiently, rapidly, and on-site. Designing sensors based on nanotechnology approaches is a recommended approach for detect and quantify agrotoxin residues in the environment. NMs enhanced surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors have been developed and employed as useful tools to sense difficult-to-detect compounds in various fields. Therefore, nanosensors based on SPR will be a promising approach to detect agrotoxin residues because they are easy to use, don’t require labelling, are miniaturized, have high specificity and sensitivity, and are available with real-time measurement capabilities. However, currently, there is a gap in the literature and a lack of comprehensive reviews on recent advances in NMs for the design of SPR nanosensors to detect of agrotoxin residues in soil. The objective of this review is to provide an overview of NMs for SPR nanosensors used in detecting agrotoxins. The review also discusses the challenges associated with agrotoxin detection and the future prospects of using nanosensors for this purpose.