Abstract In the last decade, bacterial cellulose (BC) has received considerable attention around the world, including in Brazil. The unique properties of BC, such as mechanical stability, tensile strength, thermostability, crystallinity, purity and biocompatibility make it a promising candidate for commercial applications in different areas. This article provides a comprehensive synthesis of commercial applications and studies related to BC around the world and shows the importance and development of Brazilian research during the last decade. In this review we present an overview of BC structure, biosynthesis and possible applications of BC mainly in the food, electronics, bioengineering, cosmetics and biomedical areas. The most significant contributions of Brazilian researchers using BC have been carried out in the biomedical area. Despite the increase in BC reserch, Brazil also needs to develop strategies to expand the use and commercialization of BC products, for which government financial support is extremely necessary.

Chemical imprinting technology has been widely used as a valuable tool in selective recognition of a given target analyte (molecule or metal ion), yielding a notable advance in the development of new analytical protocols. Since their discovery, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have been extensively studied with excellent reviews published. However, studies involving ion imprinted polymers (IIPs), in which metal ions are recognized in the presence of closely related inorganic ions, remain scarce. Thus, this review involved a survey of different synthetic approaches for preparing ion imprinted adsorbents and their application for the development of solid phase extraction methods, metal ion sensors (electrodes and optodes) and selective membranes.