Molecular design to suppress desorption of self-assembled monolayers

A method comprising:

• modifying a substrate surface with a self-assembled monolayer (SAM), wherein the substrate is a metal, metal oxide, metal nitride, or a silicon containing material;
• adding a mass altering unit to the SAM by a chemical or physical reaction, wherein the mass altering unit consists of a polymer, and wherein the SAM comprises:
• a surface binding unit bonded to the substrate, wherein the surface binding unit is selected from the group consisting of hydroxamates, phosphonates, catechols, halosilanes, alkoxysilanes, phosphonic acids, alkenes, alkynes, alcohols, 1,2-diols, and thiols;
• a separator unit bonded to the surface binding unit, the separator unit selected from the group consisting of a C1 to C16 unsubstituted alkyl radical, a C1 to C16 substituted alkyl radical, a C1 to C16 unsubstituted alkenyl radical, a C1 to C16 substituted alkenyl radical, a C1 to C16 unsubstituted alkynyl radical, a C1 to C16 substituted alkynyl radical, an unsubstituted phenyl radical, a substituted phenyl radical, an unsubstituted naphthyl radical, a substituted naphthyl radical, an unsubstituted anthracenyl radical, a substituted anthracenyl radical, an unsubstituted phenanthrenyl radical, a substituted phenanthrenyl radical, an unsubstituted pyrenyl radical, and a substituted pyrenyl radical;
• and
• a detector unit bonded to the separator unit, wherein the detector unit is biotin, a peptide aptamer, a DNA aptamer, or a RNA aptamer;
• and
• forming a molecular detector system.