Molecularly imprinted polymers meet sensors: Insights and prospects for pollutants analysis

Sensors offer several outstanding properties, including ease of operation, rapid response times, portability, and the ability to perform real-time analysis, driving their rapid development and broad applications. Among these, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs)-based sensors stand out due to their unique capability to modify sensor surfaces by creating recognition cavities in the polymer matrix. This approach offers a versatile methodology for imprinting various pollutants, providing a fast, sensitive, user-friendly, and highly selective sensing platform. MIPs-based sensors are especially attractive due to their excellent physicochemical stability, low cost, and reusability. Currently, a variety of sensors integrated with MIPs—such as fluorescent sensors and electrochemical sensors-have been developed for the detection and identification of trace biological macromolecules, organic pollutants, and heavy metal ions. This review explores the different types of MIPs-based sensors, their latest applications in pollutant detection, and highlights the challenges, limitations, and future directions for the development of these advanced sensing technologies.