AGREEMIP: The Analytical Greenness Assessment Tool for Molecularly Imprinted Polymers Synthesis

Area of Science:

• Polymer Chemistry
• Green Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Molecular imprinting technology (MIPs) offers high selectivity for catalysis, sensing, and separations.
• Current MIP synthesis methods often conflict with Green Chemistry principles.
• Existing methods lack quantitative measures for assessing the environmental impact of MIP synthesis modifications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and introduce a novel metric tool and software, AGREEMIP, for quantitatively assessing and comparing the greenness of MIP synthesis procedures.
• To provide a standardized method for evaluating the environmental performance of different MIP production pathways.
• To facilitate the design and selection of more sustainable MIP synthesis routes.

Main Methods:

• AGREEMIP utilizes 12 assessment criteria evaluating reaction constituents, energy usage, and procedural details.
• Input data for each criterion are converted into scores on a 0-1 scale.
• An overall greenness score is calculated using a weighted average of individual criterion scores.

Main Results:

• The study presents AGREEMIP, a user-friendly, open-source software tool for assessing MIP synthesis greenness.
• The software generates interpretable pictograms visualizing performance across criteria, weights, and overall greenness.
• Case studies demonstrate AGREEMIP's effectiveness in discriminating between different MIP synthesis pathways regarding their environmental impact.

Conclusions:

• AGREEMIP provides the first quantitative metric for evaluating the greenness of MIP synthesis.
• The tool supports informed decisions in developing more environmentally friendly MIPs.
• AGREEMIP promotes the adoption of sustainable practices in molecular imprinting technology.