Zeolites for use in environmentally sustainable sensors for hazardous pesticides: A review on reliability and potential perspectives in nanotechnology

• Natural zeolites emerge as eco-friendly, low-cost platforms for pesticide detection. • Intrinsic porosity enables zeolite-based nanosensors for in-situ monitoring. • Natural types avoid toxic byproducts, surpassing synthetic zeolites in sustainability. • Zeolites show strong potential as sustainable sensors to reduce pesticide risks. At present, environmental damage caused by the production and use of hazardous and toxic agrochemicals remains a global concern. These compounds have contributed to the contamination of water, soil, and air worldwide. Their chronic impacts on the environment and human health are still not fully understood and are often difficult to quantify. Accordingly, it is essential to identify and quantify these phytosanitary products in the environment to reduce their occurrence and mitigate cumulative effects. A viable option for their adsorption and detection can be achieved using natural and sustainable raw materials, such as zeolites. In particular, natural zeolites are promising nanostructures for use in functional and sustainable detectors, and they may serve as low-cost adsorbent materials for hazardous agrochemical monitoring. This review compiles reported applications of natural, synthetic, and composite zeolites to improve the understanding of their potential for adsorption, and thus, detection of hazardous pesticides. Information is provided on their characteristics, and factors defining its adsorption properties with the main objective of evaluating their reliability for the development of sustainable electronic sensors. The reported sensor devices developed with natural zeolites, and their detection mechanisms are discussed.