Biomacromolecule template-based molecularly imprinted polymers with an emphasis on their synthesis strategies: a review

Molecular imprinting is an efficient tool for generating synthetic acceptors with specific recognition sites, which are mimed from template structures via polymerization. The final products of this strategy lead to high-performance polymers with active recognition sites for a range of various applications in terms of extraction and separation, characterization and recognition, biomedicine, biosensors, and drug delivery. Molecular imprinting of biomacromolecules synthesizes a series of matrices that may be referred to as biomolecularly imprinted polymers (BMIPs). In this review article, an overview of different methods for fabricating BMIPs with an emphasis on novel polymerization schemes along with potential challenges is discussed. Additionally, selected applications of BMIPs will be briefly highlighted derived from the latest research papers. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.