Recent Trends in the Development of Carbon-Based Electrodes Modified with Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for Antibiotic Electroanalysis

Antibiotics are antibacterial agents applied in human and veterinary medicine. They are also employed to stimulate the growth of food-producing animals. Despite their benefits, the uncontrolled use of antibiotics results in serious problems, and therefore their concentration levels in different foods as well as in environmental samples were regulated. As a consequence, there is an increasing demand for the development of sensitive and selective analytical tools for antibiotic reliable and rapid detection. These requirements are accomplished by the combination of simple, cost-effective and affordable electroanalytical methods with molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with high recognition specificity, based on their “lock and key” working principle, used to modify the electrode surface, which is the “heart” of any electrochemical device. This review presents a comprehensive overview of MIP-modified carbon-based electrodes developed in recent years for antibiotic detection. The MIP preparation and electrode modification procedures, along with the performance characteristics of sensors and analytical methods, as well as the applications for the antibiotics’ quantification from different matrices (pharmaceutical, biological, food and environmental samples), are discussed. The information provided by this review can inspire researchers to go deeper into the field of MIP-modified sensors and to develop efficient means for reliable antibiotic determination.