Advances and Challenges in Molecularly Imprinted Conducting and Non-conducting Polymers for Selective and Sensitive Electrochemical Sensors

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) become one of the most widely used polymers in analytical chemistry due to their ability to interact specifically with target analytes. For example, MIPs can serve as artificial receptors offering an alternative to natural bioreceptors by acting as biomimetic molecules. This property makes them highly promising for analytical applications such as separation, extraction, chromatography, and chemical sensors. However, the use of MIPs in electroanalytical methods still presents challenges such as low electrical conductivity, difficulty in immobilizing MIPs on electrode surfaces, and limited accessibility to binding sites. These limitations can be resolved by employing conducting monomers to create MIPs. Recently, molecularly imprinted conducting polymer (MICP)-based electrochemical sensors have gained significant attention due to their advantages, including simplified fabrication and immobilization, intrinsic electrical conductivity, and uniform binding sites. This review describes the advantages and issues of MICPs compared to traditional molecularly imprinted non-conducting polymers (MINPs). Significant challenges, such as reduced sensitivity and selectivity, and potential strategies to overcome these limitations are discussed for high performance electrochemical devices.