Surface Chemistry Alteration

I am looking into the possibility of altering the surface chemistry of the silica.  I am wondering that if by making the silica (hydrophilic) a hydrophobic surface if the monolayer coverage would not increase?  A few concerns I have are how the beads would react to a change in pH (my guess is they won't change very much) and whether or not the increased hydrophobicity would just create more areas of multilayers instead of increased monolayer coverage.  My reasoning behind this idea in the first place is the formation of layers of surfactants on hydrophobic graphite, which promotes the formation of surfactant morphologies which cover the surface to a greater extent than they would on a hydrophilic surface.  Therefore, because of the hydrophilicity of our silica, perhaps by altering the surface chemistry enough to create a hydrophobic layer we might be able to promote enhanced layering.  Another limitation is that any alteration of the surface must not interfere with the final etching process.  Another option that I will be investigating is how a change in pH of the sphere solution might increase (or decrease) sphere layering by increasing or decreasing the binding sites on the substrate with counter-ions.