A state-of-the-art review of trends in molecularly imprinted polymers in the clean-up of pesticides in environmental samples

ABSTRACT

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are synthetic materials designed with specific molecular recognition capabilities. They are created through a process where monomers are polymerized in the presence of a template molecule, resulting in the formation of cavities or binding sites within the polymer matrix that are complementary in shape and functionality to the template molecule. MIPs offer the advantages of stability, selectivity and versatility in molecular recognition, and they have found applications across various scientific and industrial fields. The review describes some extraction procedures for the clean-up of pesticides in environmental samples before instrumental analysis. Synthesis procedures for MIPs, and the advantages and disadvantages of MIPs for the extraction of pesticides in environmental samples are discussed. In addition, an effort has also been made to condense the information regarding MIPs. Finally, drawbacks and prospects for MIPs in dispersive solid phase extraction (d-SPE) are also appraised.

KEYWORDS:

• Molecularly imprinted polymers
• pesticides
• d-SPE
• sample clean-up
• extraction

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Chemistry Department, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana for logistics support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data in this review can be obtained upon request from the corresponding author.

Ethical statement

This article does not address analysis with ethical concerns.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agencies.