Molecularly imprinted polymers using anions as templates

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are a class of solid-phase artificial receptors that are prepared using templates during the polymer network forming step; these are subsequently removed to generate the selective receptor sites. The ease of synthesis, the possibility of nanomolar binding constants and high levels of molecular discrimination, as well as environmental stability and ability to be reused, have led to a dramatic boost in research interest in MIPs. One particularly promising area of study is the use of anionic templates in the synthesis of MIPs and the targeting of substrates that carry biologically important anionic functionalities. Benefiting from concurrent developments in supramolecular receptor design and synthesis, it has become clear that MIPs for anion recognition will impact biological screening, diagnosis, point-of-care devices (including online sensing) and read-out.