Wettability of native silver surfaces

Self-assembled monolayers are usually formed on freshly evaporated metal surfaces. For some applications, however, it is inevitable to work with native metal surfaces. Strongly adsorbed organic contaminants on these materials can be removed by either a treatment with cold argon plasma or an open flame. The wettability of the surface is a direct measure of its cleanliness. The contact angles of liquids with a clean silver surface, irrespective of their polarities, were found to be very small (≤ 10°).