Himanshi Soni, Monika Bhattu
Pesticides are generally used in agriculture to increase the growth of crops and to protect crops from pests. Among the various classes of pesticides, organophosphates (OPPs) and neonicotinoids are widely used because of their high efficacy. However, their excessive use has resulted in residues in food items and water resources, affecting human and environmental health. The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified these pesticides as highly toxic compounds. Consequently, the development of sensitive, selective, and cost-effective fluorescence-based sensing platforms has gained considerable attention. Extensive literature is available on different types of sensors for detecting OPPs and neonicotinoid pesticides based on carbon dots (CDs). Therefore, this review particularly focuses on fluorescence-based sensors integrated with CDs. The review discusses green-synthesized CDs, and their emerging applications with particular emphasis on fluorescence-based detection of OPPs and neonicotinoid pesticides. This review covers the environmental fate of these pesticides, followed by biomass precursors for CD synthesis, their synthesis techniques and physicochemical properties. Furthermore, a comparative table highlighting the mechanisms, synthesis techniques, detection limits and key features has been reported in this study. A SWOT analysis is also presented to highlight the current status and future potential of green CDs for pesticide detection. Overall, this review provides researchers with an overview for the development of efficient, selective and sustainable CD-based fluorescent sensors for pesticide detection.