Due to numerous allotropic modifications and to the subsequent large spectrum of structure-properties relationships, aluminum oxides in the form of films and coatings are of major technological interest for a wide range of applications, e.g., optics and microelectronic components, wear resistance, catalyst support, protection against corrosion, and high temperature oxidation. Metal-organic (MO)CVD is a potentially attractive technique for the processing of such coatings, especially on complex-in-shape, temperature-sensitive parts. In this context, processingstructure relationships were established and the feasibility of such a process was proven, on the laboratory scale, in a series of papers recently published by the authors. [1][2][3] It is recalled that, using aluminum tri-isopropoxide (ATI) as the precursor and operating in a hot-wall reactor in the temperature range 350-415 8C, under 5 Torr, with dry N 2 as a carrier/dilution gas results in partially hydroxylated films AlO 1þx (OH) 1-2x ; x varies from 0 (AlOOH) at 350 8C to 0.5 (Al 2 O 3 ) at 415 8C. Films processed between 415 8C and 650 8C are composed of amorphous Al 2 O 3 ; nanostructured gamma-alumina films are obtained at a deposition temperature of 700 8C. In parallel, promising barrier properties were demonstrated for such amorphous coatings, especially for the protection of titanium alloys from oxidation and corrosion at temperatures up to 600 8C. [4][5][6] These works revealed that, despite its instability and trend to ageing, ATI can be used for reproducibly depositing aluminum oxide provided that it is stored in a glove box, and renewed in the bubbler after a few hours of use. The next step towards industrial implementation of this process is the insight into the involved chemical reactions, and the determination of the corresponding reaction kinetics. Such knowledge allows process modeling, and hence controlling, and consequently optimizing, the relation between macroscopic processing conditions and the local deposition rates.There are very few reports on local kinetic modeling of the MOCVD processes. This blank spot in processing science is due to the often complex chemical mechanisms involved, combining poorly known homogeneous and heterogeneous chemical reactions. The main difficulty then is to find representative chemical reactions and the related kinetic laws. Concerning the MOCVD of alumina from ATI, Kawase et al. experimentally investigated reaction kinetics in a hot-wall tubular reactor under 30 Torr total pressure in the temperature range 830-1160 8C.[7] Assuming a firstorder reaction in ATI, they found an activation energy of 179 kJ mol À1 . They also obtained different deposition rates in two different tubular reactor diameters and concluded that the dominant reaction mechanism was the homogeneous pyrolysis of ATI. Hofman et al. performed CVD and mass spectroscopic experiments in this system operating under 3 Torr between 220 8C and 450 8C.[8] The authors showed that propene is a deposition by-product, and that the rate-limiting step...