Growth of thin films occurs at a rate which deposits material at the rate of around 1 monolayer per second.
This surface coat is a monolayer of five million variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) dimers that form a macromolecular diffusion barrier.
For example, what is the transition temperature on HOPG of an isolated adsorbed monolayer not in contact with bulk liquid crystal?
To the best of our knowledge this is the first example of sensing of cations in water by a self-assembled monolayer on glass.
The reagents used for cleaning will be likely to penetrate the porous body and residual contamination may well be found beyond the first monolayer.