## 2 MIPs
### Applications of MIPS in Water and Wastewater Treatment  
Ensuring safe water to meet human demands is a major challenge of the 21 st century. Universally, water provision struggles to meet the fast-growing demand, which is aggravated by increases in the human population, climate change, and worsening water quality [61; 62]. Over the past few years, numerous surveys referred to the occurrence in water bodies of organic and inorganic micropollutants, such as endocrine-disrupting compounds, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products in surface waters, drinking water, and wastewater effluents. The occurrence of such compounds in the water caused a huge impact on the ecological balance and human health. Therefore, the treatment of water for the removal of such compounds has become a major issue. Conventional technologies have certain restrictions on their efficiency at removing micro-contaminants from waters, and there is a growing demand for innovative treatment processes and adsorbents that offer much greater efficiency [63]. Nanotechnology has a great capacity for improving the effectiveness of water and wastewater treatment [62].  
Micropollutants are normally released into water bodies via effluent discharges from wastewater treatment plants and land applications, eventually contaminating both ground and surface waters [64]. The concentrations of these pollutants are normally at a low ppb level or even at ppt level. However, these compounds can accumulate in aquatic organisms and adversely affect their growth and reproduction. Several studies have recently compared the effectiveness of various treatments and removal processes for micropollutants [65]. Coagulation and flocculation are not very efficient at eliminating organic micropollutants. Activated carbon-based materials are efficient at removing hydrophobic organic contaminants [66]. However, activated carbon treatments are normally utilized for drinking water applications and not for wastewater treatment. Various parameters can affect removal efficiency, such as adsorption kinetics, adsorbate concentration, and water composition. Oxidation of micropollutants with strong chemical oxidants (e.g., ozone) and advanced oxidation processes (e.g., UV-H\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{2}\)) is also possible [67; 68]. Nevertheless, the applications of such technologies may end up being the cause of byproducts that may be more toxic or estrogen than the primary compounds (e.g., atrazine and deethyltrazine). In terms of membrane processes, high-pressure-driven processes such as reverse osmosis and nanofiltration offer exceptional advantages in organic pollutant elimination due to the high levels of removal that can be obtained, while avoiding the creation of side products. Their disadvantages include their high capital and operational costs.  
Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) comprise a novel material for water and wastewater treatment applications, offering high selectivity of compounds [64; 69; 70; 71; 72], providing great potential for the effective absorption of chemicals from water and air samples [73]. MIPs are suitable for the treatment of trace contaminants because they can be specifically designed to remove or detect one or a group of target compounds. This is an advantage over nonspecific technologies such as activated carbon, which may be consumed by the removal of large amounts of non-trace contaminants from the water [63]. Thus, MIPs have been used in water treatment to remove or detect substances harmful to human health, such as arsenate complexes, chromium, uranium, and pharmaceuticals [74], other metal ions [75; 76], and toxic dyes [77].