Porous graphene-based electrodes: Advances in electrochemical sensing of environmental contaminants

Extravagant toxins release at an uncontrollable scale due to the continuous embarking of organic and inorganic contaminants has become a severe threat to the ecosystem's healthy sustainability. The timely monitoring and determination of the environmental contaminants are crucial to take proper steps for environmental remediation. Among advanced nanomaterials, graphene is one of the extensively explored electrode materials for sensing environmental toxins. However, the graphene sheets' agglomeration due to weak wander Waals forces and the π–π interactions compromise its unique inherent features. The integration of graphene into porous structures can facilitate in exploiting its intrinsic properties. Graphene porous network offers highly conductive multiplexed pathways with a well-defined porous structure that provides a better diffusion of the electrolyte along with analytes to encounter the active electrode material. The pores in the 2D sheet or 3D architecture of graphene provide extensive active sites for various analytes' interaction. Rationally designed porous graphene-based materials and nanocomposites are promising advanced electrode materials for trace level quantification of environmental toxins. Herein, we critically discuss the advances in developing the porous graphene and its composites-based electrodes for electrochemical sensing of the environmental toxins.