Recent advancements in molecularly imprinted polymers for the removal of heavy metal ions and dyes

Contamination set off by highly toxic metal ions and dyes is a big threat to the environment and living beings. Various industries like metal plating, mining, pesticides, battery manufacturing, and dyeing release metal ions and toxic dyes directly into the water. It is necessary to remove these toxic substances from the environment. Molecular imprinting technology (MIT) got a lot of attention in the last two decades because of several advantages over conventional adsorption technologies. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are compatible with natural antibodies having the highest selectivity due to specific recognition sites for the template molecules. Selectivity is the major advantage of MIP, any targeted heavy metal ions and dyes can be separated efficiently. Various polymerization procedures can be used for the MIP preparation started by self-assembled monomers surrounding the molecules of the template because of the "monomer functional groups and template" interchange. Various studies have been made for the removal of metal ions and dyes from water and excellent results have been attained. Continuous research developments are being done for real applications of MIPs to remove toxic environmental substances that are not only harmful to humans and other organisms but also disturb the ecological balance. This review represents the development of current MIPs, advantages as well as disadvantages exhibited from various angles to complete a roadmap towards industrial and commercial use of MIPs.