Molecular imprinting with deep eutectic solvents: Synthesis, applications, their significance, and benefits

Molecular imprinting technology produces selective materials that can be extensively used in various fields which include removal of water pollutants. In analytical chemistry, this technology is widely used for the synthesis of selective sorbents for solid-phase-based extraction processes and preparation of stationary phases for the chromatographic separations. The benefits of the resulting materials include re-usability, selectivity and high adsorption capacity. In this study, we reviewed the roles and benefits of using deep eutectic solvents (DESs) in the synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) which are used in various applications including their roles as selective sorbents in sample preparation, chromatographic stationary phase and electrochemical sensing. DESs have been used in MIP synthesis to improve the greenness of the synthetic procedures where they were applied as functional monomers, cross-linkers, porogenic solvents and modifiers. DES-based MIPs have superior adsorption capacity and selectivity when compared with commercially available adsorbents and MIPs made without the DESs. Furthermore, DESs have been found to increase the availability of important functional groups in the surface of the MIPs which improves their binding affinity and selectivity. The highlighted considerations for future studies include the applications of DESs in MIPs synthesized for a wide range of analytes and more investigations on ternary DESs which have been found to attain excellent properties when compared to binary DESs.