Abstract: Silica-based sorbents have dominated solid-phase extraction (SPE) for years. The introduction of polymer-based sorbents has brought many advantages. Polymers are more rugged, have a wider pH range, show excellent flow characteristics, have higher capacity, have no silanols, and can dry out during the SPE experiment without detrimental effects on recovery and reproducibility. This installment will compare and contrast silica-based SPE to polymer-based SPE. In addition, polymers have been used in a variety of sample preparation techniques as coatings: solid-phase micro-extraction, stir-bar sorbent extraction, SPE micropipette tips, immobilized liquid extraction and other such devices. Also the advent of molecularly-imprinted polymers (MIPs) has brought about affinity-like selectivity