A wide range of toxic chemicals is currently released into the environmental in terms of airborne, aquatic and solid wastes due to the rapid international globalization and industrialization. Thus, a sensitive, reliable and cost-effective sensor platform for emerging environmental pollutants is of great importance. The considerable advancements have been made on the successful electrochemical sensor and biosensor platforms based on nanomaterials for environmental applications. In the present review, the recent trends in the development of the electrochemical sensor platforms based on state-of-the-art nanomaterials such as metal nanoparticles, metal oxide nanomaterials, carbon nanomaterials, polymer and biomaterials are assessed. The unique synthetic approaches, properties, integration strategies, selected sensing applications and future prospects of these nanostructured materials for the design of advanced sensor platforms are also highlighted. The significant development of the nanomaterials based electrochemical sensor platforms is giving rise to new impetus of generating novel technologies for securing the human and environmental safety. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.