Introduction to New era in advanced functional materials emerging from molecular imprinting and related techniques

In the fields of molecular recognition, biomimetic chemistry, and supramolecular chemistry, a technique called molecular imprinting has been attracting a great deal of attention. Based on template polymerization, a cross-linked polymer network is synthesized in the presence of a target molecule or its derivative (the template molecule). The template molecule is then removed from the polymer to reveal binding cavities complementary to the template molecule in terms of shape and chemical functions, yielding the molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP). Since through molecular imprinting, polymeric receptors with high selectivity and affinity can be synthesized by a rather simple operation without special molecular design, the number of reports and patents in the field has been rapidly increasing and the field has grown exponentially over the recent years.

Molecular imprinting, which started with small molecular targets such as drugs and their derivatives, is now widely applied to peptides, proteins, extracellular vesicles, viruses, bacteria, and others. Although the principle of what is now known as molecular imprinting was proposed in the 1930s, the credit for the development of this technique to what it is today clearly goes to Günter Wulff and Klaus Mosbach, who have been working in this field since the 1970s and 1980s. The Society for Molecular Imprinting founded in the early 1990s has played an important role in the present prosperity of MIPs, and a series of official MIP conferences, starting with the first one held in Cardiff, UK, in 2000, has been organized as the most important forum for researchers to share new ideas, discuss the most recent advancements, and establish collaborations and even friendships.

Sadly, the 11th conference (MIP2020) scheduled to be held in Hiroshima (Japan) had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But even under these circumstances, work in the area has continued in the many expert groups worldwide. Therefore, this themed issue ‘New era in advanced functional materials emerging from molecular imprinting and related techniques’ aims to act as an important forum for recent advances and new ideas in place of the regular conference, and to accelerate future developments in the field. The scope of this themed collection ranges from new concepts and principles to advanced preparation techniques and industrial applications, including design, synthesis and characterization, affinity separation, sensing, and biological applications. We hope that researchers in chemistry, materials science, biomedical science and beyond will enjoy reading this collective issue to conceive the next generation of functional materials and antibody mimics emerging from MIPs.

Footnote

† Current address: Innovation Commercialization Division, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan.

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