Molecularly-imprinted polymers: useful sorbents for selective extractions

We review and discuss the most common protocols for synthesizing molecularly-imprinted polymers (MIPs), highlighting their main advantages and drawbacks. We then evaluate the most recent applications of MIPs and focus on the strategies adopted most to overcome the drawbacks commonly encountered when applying MIPs in different matrices. We also highlight the different advantages that MIPs offer when they are used as sorbents in solid-phase extraction (SPE) to perform highly selective extractions, and the advantages that these sorbents have over the most commonly-used SPE sorbents by reviewing some of the latest studies reported in the literature. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.