Reusable surface plasmon resonance chips allowing the quantitative and selective detection of mercury(ii) ions in water at the 0.01 nM level are reported. The surface-modified gold sensor consists of a rarefied self-assembled monolayer of octanethiol topped with a Langmuir-Blodgett monolayer of an amphiphilic and highly-specific chelator. The interdigitated architecture confers to the bilayer a high packing density, surface coverage, and binding-group accessibility.