Nanogilding

Two scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have managed to infuse toulene [benzene with a methane group in place of a hydrogen atom in the six-atom ring] with gold nanoparticles, and found that a droplet of the mixture leaves a single-atom sheet of gold on the surface once the toulene evaporates. That's as thin a gild as can be got. This method beats earlier ones, which took longer and left behind residue that had to be removed by dropping the air pressure to zero.

One of the surfaces was a three-inch silicon wafer, suggesting a use for the process.