Recent advances in electrochemical sensors based on molecularly imprinted polymers and nanomaterials for detection of ascorbic acid, dopamine, and uric acid: A review

The demand for analysing biological molecules such as dopamine (DA), ascorbic acid (AA), and uric acid (UA) is growing more than ever in applied science for better health and medicine. Over the past two decades, molecular imprinted polmers (MIPs) have been developed as synthetic receptors or substitute materials for antibodies due to their high stability, short time needed for electropolymerization, and high specificity towards the target analyte. However, the sensitivity of electrochemical sensors decreased as a result of MIPs' low conductivity and lack of electrocatalytic activity. To overcome this limitation, nanomaterials such as gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene (GR), titanium carbide MXene (Ti3C2Tx), carbon dots (CDs), molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2), and black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) and their nanocomposites have been employed as biosensing transducers to construct MIPs based on electrochemical biosensors for cost-effective detection of biological molecules with high sensitivity and specificity. This is because the high surface area, good electrical conductivity, and ease of functionalization of nanomaterials all increase MIP sensitivity to targeted biological molecules. When these advantages of nanomaterials are combined with those of electrochemical methods, such as rapid response time, ease of use, low cost, and miniature ability, MIPs based on nanomaterial-modified electrodes are widely preferred tools for sensing AA, DA, and UA. Herein, this review provides insight into recent developments in the application of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) nanomaterial-based electrochemical biosensors for detecting biological molecules, including AA, DA, and UA. The integration of nanomaterials with MIPs into electrochemical biosensors has led to an unprecedented impact on improving the limit of detection of biomolecules, indicating great potential for use in public health and medical care.