Formation of thin oxide films by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition

A summary is given of the metal-organic vapour deposition, performed during the last eight years at the University of Twente (The Netherlands), of thin alumina, silica, and titania films at atmospheric and at low pressure on stainless steels. Alumina films were produced from aluminium-tri-sec-butoxide (ATSB) and aluminium-tri-iso-propoxide (ATI), silica films from di-acetoxy-di-t-butoxy-silane (DADBS), and titania films from titanium-tetra-iso-propoxide (TTIP). These investigations can be separated into a number of projects: 1) mechanistic aspects of the decomposition chemistry of the precursors, 2) kinetics of the deposition processes, 3) chemical properties, and 4) mechanical properties of the thin oxide films.