Role of molecularly imprinted polymers for selective determination of environmental pollutants - A review

The molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are synthetic polymers possessing specific cavities designed for a target molecule. By a mechanism of molecular recognition, the MIPs are used as selective tools for the clevelopment of various analytical techniques such as liquid chromatography, capillary electrochromatography, solid-phase extraction (SPE), binding assays and biosensors. This review desc-.t ibes the application of MIPs to the determination of environmental pollutants in these different analytical approaches with a special emphasis on their potential as selective SPE sorberit for the selective extraction of target analytes from complex matrices. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.