Irving Langmuir accurately described the geometric structure of a monolayer film on water in 1917, work for which he would be later awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry. The evaporation suppressing properties of these materials were first reported by Rideal in the 1920s In the 1940s Langmuir and Schaefer quantified the evaporation resistance and its dependence on temperature. This work was extended by Archer and La Mer in the following decade, who observed a dependence on surface pressure, chain length, monolayer phase, subphase composition and surface temperature. Large scale field trials were being conducted at this time in Australia by Mansfield He reported that the results seen in the laboratory setting could not be replicated in real world conditions, with dust and wind being cited as adversely affecting evaporation suppressing performance.
In later decades, research efforts focussed on multicomponent monolayer materials such as hexadecanol + octadecanol,  altering the number of carbons in the aliphatic chain, and later on, the addition of polymerised surfactants to increase monolayer stability.
Better monolayer materials are required as are better methods of monolayer distribution methods, although no resolution of these difficulties presently exists.
Despite research in this area for most of the 20th century, no durable, effective and inexpensive product has come to market. Recently, advances in experimental and modelling techniques have increased the understanding of these materials.