Synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers for pharmaceuticals and their applications in sample preparation of environmental samples

The article provides an up-to-date review on the recent developments in the synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) and their applications in analytical methods developed for pharmaceutical analysis in environmental samples. It was discovered from the literature that recent developments in molecular imprinting largely include surface imprinting strategies and attempts to establish the green procedures for the synthesis of MIPs where deep eutectic solvents and ionic liquids are explored as green chemicals. In terms of analytical applications, it was observed that MIPs are widely explored in solid-phase extraction as sorbents, while there are other applications which include solid-phase microextraction and stir-bar sorptive extraction, where they have been used for the same purpose of improving selectivity of the analytical process. Method detection limits reaching sub- ng L -1 levels have been achieved when MIPs were used in sample preparation for liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of pharmaceuticals in environmental samples. To improve their recovery from the aqueous phase after extraction for re-use, the composite of magnetic materials with MIPs have improved the properties of the imprinted polymers, thus, leading to their efficient re-usability. This paper extensively reviewed the existing literature and map-out the research gaps in order to highlight the potential future research direction.