Lamination of alumina membranes to polymer surfaces: thick, hard, transparent, crack-free alumina films on polymers with excellent adhesion

Hard and transparent alumina (Al(2)O(3)) films with thicknesses in the range of 500 nm to 5 μm were successfully formed on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS) surfaces. Our process is based on a lamination of anodized aluminum membranes (AAMs) to the polymer surfaces, followed by chemical etching. Because of capillary force, molten PS and liquid PMMA precursor were successfully pulled into the nanopores (10 nm diameter) within the Al(2)O(3) layers and solidified by cooling or polymerization, respectively. Our resulting AAM-laminated surfaces exhibited excellent adhesion and surface mechanical properties similar to those of fused silica, remaining crack-free and transparent even with Al(2)O(3) thicknesses exceeding 1 μm.