Scaling is a problem in many industrial processes. To control and minimize it, it is important to understand the dynamics of the scale formation. In this paper, the scale formation was examined on two kinds of gold surfaces. One was a pure metallic gold surface, and the other was a gold surface modified with an alkanethiol self-assembled monolayer. A series of surface characterization experiments were performed to ensure a good understanding of the gold-thiol bond stability in a caustic solution.