Abstract: Critical scattered metals (CSMs) play vital roles in the development of high technology and energy to all countries in the future world. Moreover, the reserves of CSMs are relatively rare and the geographical distribution is unevenly high, so the recycling of key scarce metal is of great significance to our strategy. Traditional recovery methods feature high separation efficiency, wide application range and strong adaptability, while it has the disadvantages of high environmental pollution and high process cost. The ion imprinted recovery method possesses low mass transfer resistance, large adsorption capacity, easy removal of template, fast adsorption rate and good reusability. The ion imprinted polymers (IIPs) show strong recognition for template ions and adsorption performance with high selectivity. Recent advances on IIPs are reviewed from the aspects of synthetic principle, reaction raw materials and preparation process in this paper. The encountered problems with the development of IIPs are summarized and analyzed combined with target ions and carrier materials. In addition, the development trend and prospect of IIPs recovery of CSMs are prospected.