Recent advances and trends of molecularly imprinted polymers for specific recognition in aqueous matrix: Preparation and application in sample pretreatment

Abstract Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), as artificially fabricated selective absorbents, have exhibited great potential for selective separation and enrichment of trace targets in complicated matrix. However, preparing MIPs for specific recognition in aqueous matrix often face enormous challenges, which greatly limit the wide application of MIPs for selectively analyzing targets in water-containing samples. Herein, we summarize various smart preparation strategies of MIPs for specific recognition in aqueous matrix (call as aqueous-recognition MIPs for short) in recent years, including free radical polymerization (regulating the preparation environment, introducing non-hydrogen bonding interactions, utilizing hydrophilic monomer or hydrophilic crosslinker, surface modification, etc.) and non-free radical polymerization (sol-gel route, chemical/natural polymer assembly, hydrophilic molecularly imprinted resin, etc.). Meanwhile, we focus on the application of aqueous-recognition MIPs in sample pretreatment for analysis of targets in aqueous samples. Finally, the faced challenges and future perspectives in this area are presented.