X-ray studies of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) single layers on the surface of a liquid provide detailed information on the interaction of metal particles with a single layer upon an increase in the surface pressure up to the collapse. Two complementary X-ray methods are used: grazing incidence diffraction and the X-ray standing waves method. The experimental results obtained for a single layer formed on a colloidal solution of magnetite nanoparticles reveal that the increase in the surface pressure is accompanied by an increase in the concentration of nanoparticles near the surface. In a series of experiments where metal particles of submicron size are sputtered onto a DPPC single layer, a sharp decrease in the intensity of the fluorescence yield from metal atoms is observed while the single layer is compressed. These data suggest that metal particles deposited onto the surface of a single layer were extruded into the aqueous subphase.