The authors argue that sustainability must be embedded at the laboratory stage, where choices about materials, fabrication routes, and regeneration strategies ultimately determine a sensor’s environmental footprint.
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Chemical sensors are often seen as environmentally benign or even sustainable because they are small, portable, and use limited sample volumes. But this review shows their environmental footprint extends well beyond device size.
Electrode substrates, polymer coatings, porogenic solvents, energy-intensive synthesis steps, and template removal procedures all contribute to the overall lifecycle burden.
MIPs, synthetic polymers engineered with selective binding cavities, present particular challenges. Their performance depends heavily on the monomers and crosslinkers used, the solvent environment during polymerization, and the method used to remove the template molecule later. Each of those decisions carries environmental consequences.
The review systematically compares current green strategies and assessment tools to identify meaningful areas for improvement, while also presenting the compromises at stake.
Greener Materials May Come at a Cost
Researchers have increasingly turned to biomass-derived components, such as chitosan and cellulose, to produce "green" or "sustainable" MIPs. However, sometimes using such materials can be more energy-intensive due to processing requirements, etc.
Water-based systems and deep eutectic solvents (DESs and NADESs) are another option for improving the sustainability metrics of sensor production compared to traditional organic porogens. UV and microwave-assisted polymerization can also reduce energy demand.
Template removal, often one of the most chemically intensive steps, was also examined.
In one highlighted example, enzymatic digestion was used to remove β-lactoglobulin templates, reducing reliance on harsh acidic or organic solvents.
The approach preserved binding cavities and lowered chemical exposure, but analytical-grade enzymes increased costs.
Overall, the review found that greener chemistry frequently comes with an added cost, economic or otherwise.
The Importance of Quantitative Evidence
A central message of the review is that sustainability claims must be supported by structured evaluation. The authors focus on lifecycle assessment (LCA) and a suite of Green Analytical Chemistry metrics that quantify environmental performance at different stages.
The ReCiPe lifecycle method evaluates impacts across 17 midpoint categories, including climate change, toxicity, and resource depletion, and aggregates them into broader endpoint areas such as human health and ecosystem quality.
When applied with clearly defined functional units and comprehensive inventories, LCA can identify environmental “hotspots” in polymer synthesis, template removal, or operational energy use.
However, the review cautions that some newer bio-based monomers and green solvents are not yet fully represented in standard LCA databases, which can introduce uncertainty into impact calculations.
Complementing LCA are several scoring systems tailored to analytical chemistry. AGREEMIP evaluates the sustainability of MIP synthesis itself, while AGREE and AGREEprep assess the broader analytical workflow and sample preparation.
BAGI, by contrast, measures practicality and transferability rather than environmental impact.
The results do not always align. For baricitinib and scopolamine sensors, synthesis scored highly under AGREEMIP (0.87 and 0.85, respectively), yet the overall analytical method achieved lower AGREE scores (0.62 and 0.53, respectively).
The discrepancy highlights a key finding: greener synthesis does not automatically translate into a low-impact analytical process.
Regeneration As A Core Design Feature
If there is one design principle the review emphasises repeatedly, it is regeneration. Each successful reuse cycle reduces solvent consumption, material throughput, and energy demand per analysis. From a lifecycle perspective, durability can outweigh incremental improvements in monomer choice.
The authors therefore argue that regeneration protocols, low-toxicity elution strategies, and safe end-of-life planning should be integrated from the outset, rather than added later to improve sustainability metrics.
Scaling Up Production Sustainably
The review identified several priorities for translating sustainable MIP research into practical use. These include broader use of aqueous “green by design” formulations, clearer standards for reporting reuse cycles, and systematic application of lifecycle assessment to benchmark sensors against established analytical techniques.
Computational modelling, design-of-experiments strategies, and artificial intelligence are also highlighted as tools for reducing experimental waste and accelerating optimization.
Combined with miniaturized, potentially IoT-enabled platforms, these approaches could enable more resource-efficient environmental monitoring.
The review demonstrates that sustainability in sensor production requires system-level changes.
For MIP-based sensors to move reliably from laboratory innovation to real-world environmental surveillance, environmental metrics will need to sit alongside sensitivity and selectivity as core performance criteria.
Journal Reference
Costa M. et al. (2026). Green Strategies and Decision Tools for Sustainability Assessment of Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Sensors: Review. Chemosensors 14(2):49. DOI: 10.3390/chemosensors14020049