Preparation of porous alumina/ceria composite abrasive and its chemical mechanical polishing behavior

Abstract

A porous alumina/ceria composite abrasive is synthesized by the hydrothermal synthesis method with transmission electron microscope images showing that it has wormhole-like pores. The chemical mechanical polishing performance of the synthesized abrasive on hard disk substrates was then investigated and the results showed that, compared with pure porous alumina and solid alumina, the porous alumina/ceria composite abrasive has a higher material removal rate because of the presence of the active polishing element cerium. Also, the surfaces polished by the porous alumina abrasives had much fewer topographical variations and a lower surface roughness than those polished by solid alumina abrasive.