Synthesis strategies to bring molecularly imprinted polymers closer to applications
Chiara Luna Onorati, Ester Iatta, Peter A. Lieberzeit
Abstract
Molecular imprinting into polymers has been extensively researched for around four decades. Interestingly, this has led to only a limited number of materials that are fit for applying them in real-life conditions. In part, the reason for this lies in the statistical nature of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), especially when they result from free radical polymerization (FRP). This review summarizes advances in tackling those issues focusing on the last five years: it introduces different polymerization techniques for synthesizing thin films and nanoparticles, respectively, and compares them with each other with respect to their properties in binding assays and/or sensors. It hence covers different controlled radical polymerizations (CRP) and electropolymerization approaches to obtain thin films as well as synthesis approaches for MIP nanoparticles both in homogeneous solution and on the solid phase. • Discusses batch-to-batch reproducibility and binding site homogeneity of MIP and how to improve those. • Discusses the two most wide-spread MIP morphologies for sensors and assay formats, namely thin films. • Compares thin films resulting from different polymerization processes. • Discusses synthesis approaches to MIP nanoparticles that also tackle the issues mentioned above.