Silane coating is a metal surface pre-treatment introduced as a replacement for chromium treatments. It is supposed to be suited for various metals, including aluminium, steel and galvanised steel. Good corrosion performance has been assigned to these hybrid organic-inorganic thin film deposition systems. The silane molecules contain -Si-O-CnH(2n+1) groups, which after hydrolysis into reactive silanol groups -Si-OH form a covalent bonded layer on the metal surface. Curing of these films is considered essential for corrosion protection; during heat treatment, condensation of unreacted silanol groups in the film result in the formation of a -Si-O-Si- network with enhanced barrier properties. This contribution gives a chemical and morphological characterisation, obtained with spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), of BTSE silane coated aluminium as a function of curing. Further, with thermal gravimetric analysis combined with mass spectroscopy (TGA-MS), the mechanism and kinetics of the curing process are explained, and the resulting barrier properties are measured using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.