Challenges in Molecularly Imprinted Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Molecular-imprinting technology is engaged in searching for advanced selective materials with great potential for environmental, food, or biomedical analyses due to their valuable properties, such as specificity and durability. This technique forms polymers with desired selectivity towards a template, being a result of the interactions between the functional groups of the template and monomer(s) prior to the polymerization process. The orientation of molecules is fixed through chemical cross-linking during the polymerization, and then the removal of the template is undertaken to obtain a cavity in the molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP). Covalent or non-covalent imprinting strategies employ either chemical bonds or various weak interactions in the formation of template–monomer prepolymerization moieties. Despite the advantages of MIPs, various challenges, such as issues with specificity, selectivity, heterogeneity, scale-up production, and template removal, can still occur.

I am pleased to announce the upcoming Special Issue of IJMS, focusing on the main challenges and future prospects in molecularly imprinted materials. This Special Issue will encompass research on the optimization and synthesis of different formats or types of these polymers, and a broadly understood analysis of their properties, including computational studies. Additionally, contributions on their application in various fields such as smart materials, sensors, membranes, and drug delivery systems, as well as in biomedical, toxicological, analytical, and other disciplines, are welcome.

Given the growing interest in this area within the scientific community, we encourage the submission of various types of manuscripts, including original articles, reviews, and short communications.

Dr. Monika Sobiech
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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