a Molecular imprinting technology (MIT), often described as a method of making a molecular lock to match a molecular key, is a technique for the creation of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with tailor-made binding sites complementary to the template molecules in shape, size and functional groups. Owing to their unique features of structure predictability, recognition specificity and application universality, MIPs have found a wide range of applications in various fields. Herein, we propose to comprehensively review the recent advances in molecular imprinting including versatile perspectives and applications, concerning novel preparation technologies and strategies of MIT, and highlight the applications of MIPs. The fundamentals of MIPs involving essential elements, preparation procedures and characterization methods are briefly outlined.Smart MIT for MIPs is especially highlighted including ingenious MIT (surface imprinting, nanoimprinting, etc.), special strategies of MIT (dummy imprinting, segment imprinting, etc.) and stimuli-responsive MIT (single/dual/ multi-responsive technology). By virtue of smart MIT, new formatted MIPs gain popularity for versatile applications, including sample pretreatment/chromatographic separation (solid phase extraction, monolithic column chromatography, etc.) and chemical/biological sensing (electrochemical sensing, fluorescence sensing, etc.). Finally, we propose the remaining challenges and future perspectives to accelerate the development of MIT, and to utilize it for further developing versatile MIPs with a wide range of applications (650 references).

A simple colorimetric approach for mercury ion (Hg 2+ ) sensing was developed that was based on the Hg 2+ -induced deprotection and morphology transition of 1-dodecanethiol (C 12 H 25 SH)-capped silver nanoprisms (Ag NPRs) upon the presence of iodides at room temperature. The abstraction of C 12 H 25 SH from the surface of Ag NPRs by Hg 2+ led to their deprotection of Ag NPRs and the formation of complexation between silver ions and excess iodide ions. Also, the silver atoms were consumed and moved from the surface of Ag NPRs, accompanying the changes in the particle morphology that resulted in a change of color and UV−vis absorption spectra of the colloidal solution. With increasing concentrations of Hg 2+ from 10 to 500 nM, the surface plasma resonance spectral band of Ag NPRs emerged as a blue shift and exhibited a good linear relationship, and the limit of detection was 3.3 nM. Furthermore, the developed method was applied for detecting Hg 2+ in different real water samples with satisfying recoveries over 92%.

Dual-template molecularly imprinted polymers were synthesized using norfloxacin and enrofloxacin as templates by precipitation polymerization with a multi-template imprinting strategy.