The insecticides aldrin and chlordane are part of the "Dirty Dozen," a group of persistent organic pollutants that have raised significant environmental and health concerns. Both compounds were widely used for agricultural and structural pest control but have since been banned due to their toxicity and potential for bioaccumulation [1]. A cyclodiene insecticide, aldrin is converted to dieldrin, which is less toxic but still harmful. It was primarily used for soil treatment and pest control in crops [2]. A broad-spectrum insecticide effective against termites and other pests, chlordane was utilized in agriculture and residential settings [3]. Nevertheless, both of them pose a long-term environmental impact and the potential for bioaccumulation in the food chain. Both compounds are highly toxic to aquatic and terrestrial organisms and have been linked to adverse effects such as endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity, and increased cancer risk in humans [4]. Their persistence and toxicity have led to their inclusion in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, highlighting the need for effective remediation strategies [5]. The need for proper disposal or removal of existing stockpiles remains a critical issue to prevent environmental contamination [6].

Over the years, aldrin and chlordane removal methods such as ionic conversion, xenon lamp combustion, photocatalytic degradation, membrane filtration, and microbial degradation have been proposed by several researchers. While conventional analytical techniques such as gas chromatography (GC) and GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) are widely used for the detection of aldrin and chlordane due to their high sensitivity and specificity, these methods often require extensive sample preparation, sophisticated instrumentation, and are not suitable for rapid or on-site analysis. Though microbial degradation emerges as an economical and easy degradation of aldrin and chlordane, the process and its maintenance remain challenging. Microorganisms like Pseudonocardia sp., Cupriavidus sp., Mucor racemosus, Trichoderma viride, Burkholderia sp., Pleurotus ostreatus, and Pseudomonas fluorescens have been employed to degrade aldrin under anaerobic conditions. Erdal Kusvuran and Oktay used Na-montmorillonite clay and activated carbon to adsorb aldrin, and then, it was oxidised with Fenton, UV/Fenton, UV/H2O2, and UV/Fe2+ systems and was able to degrade 95 % of aldrin [7]. Another researcher photocatalytically removed aldrin using graphene oxide and TiO2-doped CuFe2O4 [8]. The removal was around 97 % even after 100 cycles. The liquid-liquid extraction method, using a solvent mixture, was employed to determine organochlorines; the recovery value of aldrin was 95.4 %, which was estimated using the Gas Chromatography technique. Recently, nanofiltration membranes synthesized with –NH2 group functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were proven to remove aldrin by 96 %, following the size exclusion principle [9]. A variety of cyclodextrin derivatives and their composites are summarized to remove chlordane owing to the cyclic structures of cyclodextrin [10]. The network-like structures of covalent and metal-organic frameworks (COF and MOF) would enhance the binding affinity of aldrin and chlordane, enabling their adsorption [[11], [12], [13], [14]]. Likewise, the literature opens up an exploration of 2D network structures for the adsorption of aldrin and chlordane. Graphene oxide composite comprised of CuFe2O4 and TiO2 was able to remove aldrin and dieldrin photocatalytically with a removal efficiency of 90 % and 91 %. With the innovation of graphene in 2004 [15], several layered materials have been discovered and designed. However, the molecules like arsenene and phosphorene undergo oxidation easily [16], which hinders their versatile applications. Nevertheless, the possible way to overcome such difficulty is to modify these structures by substituting some other atoms to form binary compounds. The characteristics of these materials vary from semiconductors to insulators and offer a wide range of applications. Several binary, monolayers such as PN, AsP, SbP, AsN, and SbAs have also been investigated [[17], [18], [19], [20]]. The present work uses a Group V-binary compound, AsP, in its 1D form (AsP nanotubes), with β-phase for the adsorption of aldrin and chlordane. β-AsP nanotube-based sensors are predicted to offer several distinct advantages, including exceptionally high sensitivity and selectivity due to their large surface area and tunable electronic properties, rapid and direct detection without complex sample processing, and the potential for miniaturization into portable devices for field applications. The stable structure of β-AsP nanotubes (β-AsP NT) was first achieved theoretically using Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations, and the geometry, bandgap energy, and orbital distribution were first explored. Furthermore, aldrin and chlordane molecules were allowed to adsorb on AsP NT at hollow, top, and valley positions, bandgap energy, charge transfer, and the change in relative energy gap variation are explored. The study highlights the possible interactions between the target molecules (aldrin and chlordane) and the AsNP NT via the DFT method.