How Aqueous Salt Solutions Affect Hydrophobic Surfaces

The study of how salty water meets a hydrophobic surface is important because in nature water is rarely pure. In order to study this phenomenon, we need smooth and homogenous surfaces; however, salt solutions can damage our surfaces. We study this damage for a variety of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) in different aqueous salt solutions, using contact angle measurements, scanning electron microscopy, surface plasmon resonance.