Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for Separation and Purification

Dear Colleagues,

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are tailor-made chemical receptors that recognize and bind to target molecules. With high affinity and excellent selectivity, they are best characterized by their “lock-and-key” mechanism. They serve as artificial recognition materials with tailor-made binding sites, which are complementary to the templates in shape, size and functional groups. In recent years, MIPs have attracted considerable attention as multifunctional materials suitable for use in the separation and purification fields due to their high selectivity, low cost, easy preparation, resistance to harsh conditions, long performance life, specific recognition ability, and good physical and chemical stability. Therefore, MIPs have been successfully used in extraction/sample cleanup, drug delivery, chemosensors, chromatographic separation, catalysis, food analysis and many other fields. Therefore, we expect the rapid innovation and development of MIPs for use in the field of separation and purification in the future. Additionally, more works are needed in order to achieve further improvements and broader applications with MIPs in the fields of separation and purification.

The aim of this Special Issue is to demonstrate the current state of the MIPs for separation and purification. We invite anyone working in related areas to contribute with a study, communication or review article. Therefore, it is my pleasure to invite you to contribute your excellent research works to this Special Issue on extraction and purification processes, characterization, modeling as well as analytical techniques combined with MIPs for separation and purification in various fields.  

Dr. Yang Cheng
Dr. Zhen Yan
Guest Editors

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