Green molecularly imprinted polymer-based electrochemical sensors: Toward sustainable analytical applications

Creative Commons License

Yence M., Çetinkaya A., Erdoğan Orhan ., Özkan S. A.

GREEN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, cilt.19, sa.2026, ss.1-17, 2026 (ESCI)

Özet

The escalating global pollution crisis, driven by population growth, urbanization, industrialization, and overconsumption, poses significant risks to ecosystems, environmental sustainability, and human health. Green molecular recognition strategies, particularly molecularly imprinted polymer-based electrochemical sensors, offer highly selective and sensitive platforms for pollutant detection, mimicking natural biological recognition sites while providing stability, reusability, and cost-effectiveness. Plant-assisted MIP-based electrochemical sensors represent a sustainable approach that integrates renewable and biodegradable materials to reduce the environmental footprint of traditional analytical techniques. Various construction methods for green MIPs, including energy-efficient polymerization techniques and sustainable solvents, further enhance environmental compatibility without compromising analytical performance. Plant-based materials play a crucial role in MIP fabrication by enhancing biocompatibility, mechanical stability, and functional versatility. Electrochemical MIP sensor development benefits from plants by enabling portable, in situ detection platforms for real-world environmental sample analysis and pollutant tracking in industrial and agricultural settings. Analytical applications of green MIPs demonstrate high selectivity and sensitivity toward a wide range of contaminants, including pollutants, pharmaceuticals, and biomolecules, highlighting their potential as eco-friendly alternatives to conventional methods. Future developments in green MIP technology emphasize integrating sustainability, cost-efficiency, and high analytical performance, paving the way for broader adoption in field-deployable sensing systems. This review highlights recent advances (2021–2026) in plant-assisted, molecularly imprinted polymer-based electrochemical sensors from a green analytical chemistry perspective, critically evaluating sustainable design strategies, emerging functional materials, and the balance between analytical performance and environmental sustainability.