Patent ID: 7306814

Claim:
A method of producing a continuous layer of a plurality of crystals of a salt, designated the encapsulating salt, said encapsulating salt comprising a cation and an anion which method comprises (i) forming an aqueous suspension of particles of a substrate and the cation of the encapsulating salt, wherein said cation is dissolved in water in combination with a different anion from the anion of the encapsulating salt and wherein said substrate comprises a plurality of binding sites for the cation and/or the anion of the encapsulating salt; (ii) precipitating the encapsulating salt to form a plurality of crystals in the aqueous suspension by introducing the anion of the encapsulating salt in combination with a different cation from the cation of the encapsulating salt; wherein the plurality of charged binding sites being present on the surface of the substrate is at a sufficient density so that the resulting plurality of salt crystals form a continuous layer.