Electroanalytical overview: The detection of chromium

Abstract

Chromium exerts serious damage to human beings and to aquatic life and is one of the most common environmental contaminant and possess toxicity when present above threshold limits. In comparison with the traditional quantification methods such as atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, UV-Vis or high-performance liquid chromatography, electrochemical methods towards monitoring chromium ions have the advantages of being portable, rapid, cost effective, simple, sensitive and selective enough to meet regulatory limits. This review presents the recent progress in the field of electroanalysis using different electrode platforms such as solid or screen-printed electrode (SPE) and various functional materials towards chromium determination. The fabrication strategy and the analytical performance of carbon nanomaterials (such as carbon nanotubes and graphene), metal and metal oxide nanomaterials enabled sensors for electrochemical determination of chromium (III) and chromium (VI) ions are summarized systematically. In addition, method validation and the application of these sensors in real samples for the analysis of chromium ions is discussed and future developments in this domain are provided.

Keywords

• Chromium (Cr(III), Cr(VI))
• Electroanalytical
• Sensing
• Electroanalysis
• Sensor
• Electrochemistry