Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: Occurrence, Electroanalysis, Challenges, and Future Outlooks

Abstract

The past several decades have seen increasing concern regarding the wide distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in environmental matrices. Primary toxicological data show PAHs’ persistent characteristics and possible toxicity effects. Because of this pressing global issue, electroanalytical methods have been introduced. These methods are effective for PAH determination in environmental waters, even outclassing sophisticated analytical techniques such as chromatography, conventional spectrophotometry, fluorescence, and capillary electrophoresis. Herein, the literature published on PAHs is reviewed and discussed with special regard to PAH occurrence. Moreover, the recent developments in electrochemical sensors for PAH determination and the challenges and future outlooks in this field, are also presented.

Keywords:

• Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
• electrochemical sensor
• voltammetric analysis
• and chemically-modified electrodes

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Universiti Putra Malaysia (9557800) and Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (FRGS/1/2017/STG01/UPM/02/4).