Exposure of II-VI LHs to the humid environment led to pronounced reductions in both contact angle and white light reflectance over the course of 30 days. Among n-alkylaminecontaining LHs, the degradation rate followed the order (from highest to lowest) ZnSe(ea) > ZnSe(ba) > ZnSe(ha) > ZnSe(oa) > ZnSe(da) > ZnSe(dda), in accordance with our hypothesis that longer chains protect the inorganic layers more so than shorter chains. The II-VI LH with the longest ligand tested here, dda, exhibited a reduction in visible light reflectance of just 6% after 30 days (compared with a change of 25% for the ba-containing ZnSe(ba)) and a change in CA of just 1° (compared with a change of 28° for ZnSe(ba)) after being held in the humid environment. Similar trends were observed for alkaneprotected BP and Ge nanowires. We reason that increasing chain length reduces diffusion rates for O2 and H2O, reducing LH degradation rate. However, the ligand length alone is not fully predictive of degradation rate. For example, ZnSe(eea) and ZnSe(boa) both possess ligands of lengths similar to that of n-pentylamine. The degradation of ZnSe(boa) is consistent with that expected given its ligand chain length: after 30 days in the humid environment, it exhibited a decrease in white light reflectance to 80% of the original value, between those of the shorter-chain ZnSe(ba) (76%) and the longer-chain ZnSe(ha) (84%). In contrast, both DRS and CA measurements of ZnSe(eea) exposed to the humid environment for 30 days showed degradation closer to that of ZnSe(ea). While the increased hydrophilicity of ZnSe(eea) compared to that of the LHs capped by n-alkylamines may play a role in its more-rapid-than-expected degradation, the highly hydrophilic ZnSe(boa) (CA < 10 °C) does not exhibit such rapid degradation. While the hydroxide groups terminating the boa ligand could stabilize the layer by coordinating to the ZnSe slab (instead of coordinating via the amine group), plane wave DFT calculations (Figures and) oppose this hypothesis. Ligand binding via the amine group is approximately 50% more enthalpically favoured over that via the hydroxyl group. Analysis by FTIR (Figure ) provided no indication of ligand binding mode. Hence, the specific role of the hydroxyl group of boa to stabilize the underlying ZnSe slab remains elusive. ZnSe(amch) and ZnSe(bza) present another case study on the influence of non-linear ligands on LH stability. Despite the low LEY of ZnSe(amch) (10-40%) and lack of phase purity, its white light reflectance falls to just 89% of the original value in the humid environment over 30 days compared with ZnSe(bza), whose white light reflectance falls to 81% under identical conditions. It is known that benzene forms hydrogen bonds with water; hence, similar hydrogen bonding between the aromatic ring of bza and water is expected. The greater water affinity of ZnSe(bza) compared with that of ZnSe(amch) is supported by the initial CAs of these compounds (110° and 132°, respectively). We posit that the relative hydrophobicity imparted by amch compared with that of bza imposes a greater kinetic barrier towards H2O interacting with the underlying ZnSe layer.