Molecular Imprinting Polymer (MIP) technology is a technique to design artificial receptors with a predetermined selectivity and specificity for a given analyte, which can be used as ideal materials in various application fields. In the last decades, MIP technology has gained much attention from the scientific world as summarized in several reviews with this topic. Furthermore, green synthesis in chemistry is nowadays one of the essential aspects to be taken into consideration in the development of novel products. In accordance with this feature, the MIP community more recently devoted considerable research and development efforts on eco-friendly processes. Among other materials, biomass waste, which is a big environmental problem because most of it is discarded, can represent a potential sustainable alternative source in green synthesis, which can be addressed to the production of high-value carbon-based materials with different applications. This review aims to focus and explore in detail the recent progress in the use of biomass waste for imprinted polymers preparation. Specifically, different types of biomass waste in MIP preparation will be exploited: chitosan, cellulose, activated carbon, carbon dots, cyclodextrins, and waste extracts, describing the approaches used in the synthesis of MIPs combined with biomass waste derivatives.

Sustainable polymers from renewable resources are classified as biobased polymers. Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is one of the most common biobased polymers applied in the biodegradable plastic industry as a feasible substitute of petrochemical-derived products. Cardanol oil (CA), a renewable resource and relatively low-cost side product of the cashew agro-industry, combined with neat PLA permitted the preparation of plasticized PLA/CA films by means of hot melt extrusion processes. Looking at packaging applications of the functional biobased PLA/CA films, chemical, mechanical, thermal, antioxidant, and barrier properties were studied. Thermal analysis revealed that the PLA glass-transition temperature decreased with the increasing content of CA, indicating that CA worked as a plasticizer for PLA. The presence of CA increased the oxygen transmission through the PLA/CA films; consequently, the permeability values were always appreciably higher for plasticized films. Nevertheless, the CA-plasticized PLA films showed good barrier properties similar to packaging materials commonly used in the food industry today. Release studies from PLA/CA films were carried out in four food simulants (physiological saline solution, ethanol, acetic acid, and isooctane) through spectrophotometric measurements and revealed the release effects only in simulants for fatty foods. Radical scavenging assays indicated the elevated antioxidant activity of CA-incorporated films compared to neat PLA.

Organic coatings have been widely used to protect carbon steel pipelines from external corrosion; however, they often suffer from permeability and weak adhesion. Here we show that synthetic lanthanide bis-phthalocyanine complexes, LnPc₂ (Ln = lanthanide metal, Pc = C₃₂H₁₆N₈ denotes the phthalocyanine ligand) can be used to form new nanocomposite coatings to provide corrosion protection to the underlying carbon steel pipelines. Electrochemical studies (EIS and potentiodynamic polarization) showed that the incorporation of LnPc₂ compound (PrPc₂, SmPc₂ and HoPc₂) additives with alkyd coating, leads to a significant increase in the corrosion resistance of carbon steel in 0.5 M HCl solution. The alkyd@LnPc₂ nanocomposite coatings absorb very low water volumes, when compared to the neat alkyd coating. LnPc₂ compounds allowed enhancing the pull-off adhesion of coatings performance from 3.34 MPa to 19.94 MPa. The efficiency of alkyd@HoPc₂ coating appears higher than that of alkyd@PrPc₂ and alkyd@SmPc₂ coatings. The protective properties of alkyd@LnPc₂ coatings were confirmed by SEM, TGA, scratch hardness, impact resistance, bend test and contact angle analysis.