A critical review of molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction technology

Solid phase extraction (SPE) plays an important role in chemical and biological analysis. Compared with liquid–liquid extraction, SPE has the advantages of low solvent consumption, high efficiency, low cost, convenient operation and short time-consuming. However, the adsorbent used in SPE usually shows poor selectivity. The molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), which is similar to the binding of antigen and antibody, has specific adsorption capability to the specific molecules. Using MIP as the adsorbent of SPE prepared molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction (MISPE), can significantly improve the selectivity of SPE. MISPE has been widely used in separation, enrichment, pretreatment and detection. In this review, various modes of MISPE are systematically introduced, including off-line MISPE, on-line MISPE, molecularly imprinted-dispersive SPE, molecularly imprinted-matrix solid phase dispersion and magnetic MISPE. In addition, the applications of MISPE in food safety, environmental monitoring, drug and biological samples analysis are also reviewed.