Molecularly imprinted polymers are synthetic receptors for a targeted molecule. As such, they are analogues of the natural antibody–antigen systems. In this review, after a recounting of the early history of the general field, we specifically focus on the application of these polymers as sensors. In these applications, the polymers are paired with a reporting system, which may be electrical, electrochemical, optical, or gravimetric. The presence of the targeted molecule effects a change in the reporting agent, and a calibrated quantity of the target is recorded. In this review, we describe the imprinted polymer production processes, the techniques used for reporting, and the applications of the reported sensors. A brief survey of recent applications to gas-phase sensing is included, but the focus is primarily on the development of sensors for targets in solution. Included among the applications are those designed to detect toxic chemicals, toxins in foods, drugs, explosives, and pathogens. The application of computational chemistry to the development of new imprinted polymers is included as is a brief assessment of future developments.

中文翻译：

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分子印迹聚合物

分子印迹聚合物是目标分子的合成受体。因此，它们是天然抗体-抗原系统的类似物。在这篇综述中，在回顾了整个领域的早期历史之后，我们特别关注这些聚合物作为传感器的应用。在这些应用中，聚合物与报告系统配对，该报告系统可以是电的，电化学的，光学的或重量分析的。目标分子的存在会影响报告试剂的变化，并记录目标物的校准量。在这篇综述中，我们描述了印迹聚合物的生产过程，用于报告的技术以及所报告传感器的应用。简要概述了气相检测的最新应用，但是重点主要放在解决方案目标传感器的开发上。这些应用包括设计用于检测有毒化学物质，食品，药品，炸药和病原体中毒素的应用。计算化学在新的印迹聚合物开发中的应用也包括在内，这是对未来发展的简要评估。