When Salty Water Meets a Hydrophobic Surface

The investigation of how water meets a hydrophobic surface suggests that a very low-density layer, called the depletion layer, forms to mitigate the loss of hydrogen bonds at the surface. Salt disrupts the hydrogen-bonding network of water and therefore is expected to affect the formation of the depletion layer. We study this interface using the quantum optical technique of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) for self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) in different aqueous salt solutions.