Molecularly imprinted polymers for the sensing of hazardous chemicals: Mechanisms and applications

Hazardous chemicals, characterized by their diverse origins and significant toxicity, pose systemic threats to global public safety, ecological environments, and human health. These chemicals primarily include explosives, chemical warfare agents, organophosphorus pesticides, biotoxins, and illicit drugs. While conventional detection technologies exhibit high sensitivity, their reliance on bulky instruments and specialized expertise impedes rapid on-site response capabilities. The development of novel detection methodologies featuring efficient identification, real-time monitoring, and anti-interference capabilities has become an urgent demand to avoid threats from hazardous chemicals. As synthetic biomimetic recognition materials, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have demonstrated significant potential due to their high specificity, stability, and customizable recognition sites. MIPs achieve selective target binding through pre-designed cavities that are complementary to analytes in terms of size, shape, and functional groups. Recent advances demonstrate that MIPs integrated with optical, electrochemical, and mass-sensitive sensing principles exhibit remarkable advantages in detection sensitivity, anti-interference capability, and environmental adaptability, making them suitable for rapid on-site detection and real-time monitoring scenarios. This review systematically summarizes recent progress in MIP-based hazardous chemical detection, focusing on biomimetic recognition mechanisms and technical superiority, while exploring the potential for multi-scenario applications. Current challenges and future perspectives of MIP-based detection strategies are critically examined, providing a theoretical foundation for the development of efficient and portable detection platforms.