Sensors for determination of uranium: A review

With rapid development of nuclear industry, the overexploitation of uranium has brought a series of radioactive pollution problems to water, soil, atmosphere and ecosystem. Uranium and its compounds are highly carcinogenic and biologically toxic, posing a deadly threat to human health. Therefore, how to design a highly selective and sensitive sensor to detect uranyl ions in the environment and organisms has become an urgent task. This review summarizes relevant literature on the detection of uranyl ions by different sensors over the years. The detection methods can be roughly divided into three categories: optical sensors, electrochemical sensors and other sensors; further classification has also been carried out according to their detection mechanism. The detection limits and performances of different sensors are discussed to intuitively understand different capability for these methods in detecting uranyl ions. We also discuss the trend and future direction of uranium to provide a valuable reference for further developing better uranyl sensors.