Drug delivery systems (DDS) capable of releasing an active molecule at the appropriate site and at a rate that adjusts in response to the progression of the disease or to certain functions/biorhythms of the organism are particularly appealing. Biocompatible materials sensitive to certain physiological variables or external physicochemical stimuli (intelligent materials) can be used for achieving this aim. Light‐responsiveness is receiving increasing attention owing to the possibility of developing materials sensitive to innocuous electromagnetic radiation (mainly in the UV, visible and near‐infrared range), which can be applied on demand at well delimited sites of the body. Some light‐responsive DDS are of a single use (i.e. the light triggers an irreversible structural change that provokes the delivery of the entire dose) while others able to undergo reversible structural changes when cycles of light/dark are applied, behave as multi‐switchable carriers (releasing the drug in a pulsatile manner). In this review, the mechanisms used to develop polymeric micelles, gels, liposomes and nanocomposites with light‐sensitiveness are analyzed. Examples of the capability of some polymeric, lipidic and inorganic structures to regulate the release of small solutes and biomacromolecules are presented and the potential of light‐sensitive carriers as functional components of intelligent DDS is discussed.

Smart materials can endow implantable depots, targetable nanocarriers and insertable medical devices with activation-modulated and feedback-regulated control of drug release.

Template removal is a critical step in the preparation of most molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). The polymer network itself and the affinity of the imprinted cavities for the template make its removal hard. If there are remaining template molecules in the MIPs, less cavities will be available for rebinding, which decreases efficiency. Furthermore, if template bleeding occurs during analytical applications, errors will arise. Despite the relevance to the MIPs performance, template removal has received scarce attention and is currently the least cost-effective step of the MIP development. Attempts to reach complete template removal may involve the use of too drastic conditions in conventional extraction techniques, resulting in the damage or the collapse of the imprinted cavities. Advances in the extraction techniques in the last decade may provide optimized tools. The aim of this review is to analyze the available data on the efficiency of diverse extraction techniques for template removal, paying attention not only to the removal yield but also to MIPs performance. Such an analysis is expected to be useful for opening a way to rational approaches for template removal (minimizing the costs of solvents and time) instead of the current trial-and-error methods.