Biosensors and Nanotheranostics
Bionanotechnology, Drug Delivery, Therapeutics | online ISSN 3064-7789
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Volume 4 Number 1 2025
REVIEWS (Open Access)
Bismuth-Based Electrodes for Trace Metal, Pesticide, and Pharmaceutical Detection: A Systematic Review
Lamiah Hossain 1*, Sarenur Turan 2
Biosensors and Nanotheranostics 4 (1) 1-12 https://doi.org/10.25163/biosciences.4110521
Submitted: 16 May 2025 Revised: 10 July 2025 Accepted: 18 July 2025 Published: 19 July 2025
Abstract
Mercury has long dominated stripping voltammetry, but its toxicity has pushed the field toward safer alternatives — and bismuth, over the past two decades, has emerged as the leading candidate. What has been missing, though, is a systematic attempt to pull the resulting literature together and ask how consistently bismuth-based electrodes actually perform once fabrication method, substrate, and target analyte are all allowed to vary. This review set out to do exactly that. Following PRISMA 2020 guidance, we searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for original experimental studies reporting quantitative electroanalytical outcomes — limit of detection, sensitivity, linear range, or recovery — for bismuth film, bismuth-modified carbon, screen-printed, or nanostructured bismuth electrodes. Nine studies met all eligibility criteria after full-text screening. Data were extracted independently by two reviewers and synthesized using a random-effects meta-analytic model, with heterogeneity assessed via the I² statistic and publication bias examined through funnel plot inspection and Egger's test. Across the included studies, bismuth-based electrodes showed consistently strong, and in several cases exceptional, detection limits for heavy metals such as Cd(II) and Pb(II), alongside credible performance for pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and hormones — a breadth of application that few alternative "green" electrode materials can currently match. Heterogeneity across studies was considerable, reflecting real differences in electrode design rather than measurement noise, and the modest number of eligible studies (k = 9) means pooled estimates should be interpreted as an early, rather than definitive, quantitative picture. Even so, the evidence gathered here positions bismuth-based electrodes as a genuinely viable, environmentally safer platform for portable and field-deployable electroanalysis.
Keywords: Bismuth film electrode; stripping voltammetry; trace metal detection; green electroanalysis; systematic review
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