Functional surface finish and method of its application to a material surface

A surface finish, comprising a finishing agent having a functional part and a surface-anchoring part, wherein said functional part comprises a functional moiety and a first covalent binding moiety, and wherein said surface-anchoring part comprises a surface-anchoring moiety for binding said surface-anchoring part to a material surface and a second covalent binding moiety, and wherein said first and second covalent binding moieties together form a thermally reversible covalent bond at a temperature T1 while they form no covalent bond at a temperature T2, wherein T1 is lower than T2, and wherein, when said functional part and said surface-anchoring part are coupled via said thermally reversible covalent bond and are bonded to a material surface through said surface-anchoring part, said functional part is removable from said material surface by breaking the thermally reversible covalent bond above a temperature T2, whereby said second covalent binding moiety continues to be bonded to the material surface by said surface-anchoring moiety.