Commerial use of anodized aluminum oxide finishes is approaching 80 years inindustry. It is a sturdy fixture in the minds of several industries as a means toimpart corrosion and wear resistance, as well as decoration to the surface ofaluminum components. Over this period of time, scientific research and analysishave shown us the anodizing process yields a finish with a predictablemicrostructure. Engineering process and formulation development has focused onfinishing and finish performance challenges of pretreatment, finish hardness,corrosion resistance and coloring. Little innovation has taken place to elevate theanodizing process to new technologies. This paper describes two examples of newoutlooks for research and development for the anodized aluminum oxide finish.The first example is based in formulation chemistry and has resulted in thedevelopment of a transition layer for polymer-metal bonding. Second, recent workat Argonne National Laboratory has shown that the resultant finish can be viewedas a self-assembled nanoscale structure of hydrated aluminum oxide, giving riseto a number of new, unique, stand-alone applications.
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