Engineering MXene for Electrochemical Environmental Pollutant Sensing

Abstract

Environmental pollutant sensing is essential to sustainable development of human health and ecosystem. MXenes as a category of two-dimensional materials consisting of nitrides and carbides have emerged as highly attractive candidates for electrochemical sensing of environmental pollutants including toxic gases, harmful volatile organic compounds, and biologically relevant components due to strong metallic conductivity, easy customization, abundant surface functional groups and large interlayer spacing. This comprehensive review firstly assesses environmental pollutant sensing mechanism and modular MXene electrode fabrication methods. Subsequently, the research progress of MXene has been summarized by comparing the performances in environmental pollutants detection. Next, how to improve electrochemical stability and selectivity of MXenes has been further discussed by different techniques. Finally, the faced challenges in this field and prospective directions for future research have been suggested by integrating emerging technologies and interdisciplinary approaches. The key objective of this review is to motivate engineers and materials scientists to consider incorporating MXenes into technologies for environmental protection, thereby fostering inventive solutions to urgent global issues.