High temperature sintering of sol-gel gibbsite film for acoustic membrane

Abstract

In recent years, aluminum oxide films have found application in surface acoustic wave sensors. The paper presents the mechanical and physical properties of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) films obtained by the sol-gel method and subsequent sintering by high-temperature annealing. The synthesis of an aluminum oxide film from inorganic sols using the sol-gel technology was carried out. The effect of high-temperature treatment on the geometric dimensions, surface morphology, and hardness of Al2O3 films has been investigated. It was found that due to high-temperature sintering, the average values of film thickness and surface roughness are reduced by about 2 times. The effect of sintering temperatures on hardness suggests that with increasing temperature hardness of aluminum oxide film increases, and at sintering temperature of 800°C was 11.7±1.2 GPa.