Quantifying the growth per cycle of ALD Al2O3 thin films on cellulosic substrates
Abstract
Cellulosic products have emerged as a solution to plastics in the food packaging industry, and Al2O3 deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) improves their barrier properties. However, the complex nature of the substrate renders reliable characterisation of thin film thickness challenging, limiting fundamental understanding of thin film growth on cellulose. Here, we present a method to determine the atomic growth per cycle (GPC) of ALD Al2O3 thin films on nanopaper substrates. Quantification was achieved by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) following acid digestion of the thin films. This method was found to be comparable to conventional characterisation techniques on ALD Al2O3 on silicon substrate, and was subsequently applied to the nanopaper substrates. X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) was introduced as a complementary method to enable rapid, non-destructive measurements. A calibration curve between the proposed method and XRF enabled quantitative measurements of ALD Al2O3 growth on nanopaper substrates. The method presented in this paper revealed a higher apparent atomic GPC on nanopaper compared to silicon substrates. This new approach provides a practical approach to quantifying thin film growth deposited on cellulosic or other complex substrates.
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BibTeX
@article{patureau2026quantifying,
title = {{Quantifying the growth per cycle of ALD Al2O3 thin films on cellulosic substrates}},
author = {Hugo Patureau and Thierry Encinas and Vincent Martin and Erwan Gicquel and Frederic Mercier and Elisabeth Blanquet and Arnaud Mantoux},
journal = {Materials Letters},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.matlet.2026.141271},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05786009v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Quantifying the growth per cycle of ALD Al2O3 thin films on cellulosic substrates
AU - Hugo Patureau
AU - Thierry Encinas
AU - Vincent Martin
AU - Erwan Gicquel
AU - Frederic Mercier
AU - Elisabeth Blanquet
AU - Arnaud Mantoux
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
JO - Materials Letters
DO - 10.1016/j.matlet.2026.141271
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05786009v1
AB - Cellulosic products have emerged as a solution to plastics in the food packaging industry, and Al2O3 deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) improves their barrier properties. However, the complex nature of the substrate renders reliable characterisation of thin film thickness challenging, limiting fundamental understanding of thin film growth on cellulose. Here, we present a method to determine the atomic growth per cycle (GPC) of ALD Al2O3 thin films on nanopaper substrates. Quantification was achieved by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) following acid digestion of the thin films. This method was found to be comparable to conventional characterisation techniques on ALD Al2O3 on silicon substrate, and was subsequently applied to the nanopaper substrates. X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) was introduced as a complementary method to enable rapid, non-destructive measurements. A calibration curve between the proposed method and XRF enabled quantitative measurements of ALD Al2O3 growth on nanopaper substrates. The method presented in this paper revealed a higher apparent atomic GPC on nanopaper compared to silicon substrates. This new approach provides a practical approach to quantifying thin film growth deposited on cellulosic or other complex substrates.
SN - 0167-577X
ER -