Molecularly imprinted polymers with stimuli-responsive affinity: Progress and perspectives

Abstract

Intelligent stimuli-responsive molecularly imprinted polymers (SR-MIPs) have attracted considerable research interest in recent years due to the potential applications in drug delivery, biotechnology and separation sciences. This review comprehensively summarizes various SR-MIPs, including the design and applications of thermo-responsive MIPs, pH-responsive MIPs, photo-responsive MIPs, biomolecule-responsive MIPs and ion-responsive MIPs. Besides the development of current SR-MIPs, the advantages as well as the disadvantages of current SR-MIPs were also displayed from different angles, especially preparation methods and application fields. We believe this review will be helpful to guide the design, development and application of SR-MIPs.