A surface functional monomer-directing strategy for highly dense imprinting of TNT at surface of silica nanoparticles

A surface functional monomer-directing strategy is described for the highly dense imprinting of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) molecules at the surface of silica nanoparticles. It is shown that the imprinting method at the surface of silica is applicable to imprinting various organic molecules such as estrone and amino acids and the monomer-directing approach has formed a basis of a new strategy for preparing various functional polymer-coating layers on silica support.