Elsevier

Thin Solid Films

Volume 516, Issue 12, 30 April 2008, Pages 4036-4039
Thin Solid Films

Letter
Protection of polymer from atomic-oxygen erosion using Al2O3 atomic layer deposition coatings

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2007.07.150Get rights and content

Abstract

Thin films of Al2O3 grown using atomic layer deposition (ALD) techniques can protect polymers from erosion by oxygen atoms. To quantify this protection, polyimide substrates with the same chemical repeat unit as Kapton® were applied to quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensors. Al2O3 ALD films with varying thicknesses were grown on the polyimide substrates. The ALD-coated polyimide materials were then exposed to a hyperthermal atomic-oxygen beam. The mass loss versus oxygen-atom exposure time was measured in situ by the QCM. Al2O3 ALD film thicknesses of ∼ 35 Å were found to protect the polymer from erosion.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-04-1-0428 and FA9550-06-1-0075).

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