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Aluminum Foil (Light Tight)
Available Configurations
Properties common to all products in this list
| Purity | Thickness | Sides | Temper Options | Surface Finish Options | Other Variants | Other Grades Available |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99% to 99.9999% | 0.002mm to 25mm | 5mm to 1000mm | Annealed, Hard, Half Hard, As Rolled | Polished on both sides | Non Light Tested | 1xxx, 2xxx, 3xxx, 4xxx, 5xxx, 6xxx, 7xxxx |
Need custom configurations? Please contact us.
Key Features
Light-Tight Aluminum Foil is a pinhole-free variant of standard aluminum foil available in purity grades from 99% to 99.9999% (6N), with gauges from 0.002 mm to 25 mm — retaining aluminum's core material properties while adding guaranteed optical opacity across the visible and near-infrared spectrum:
Pinhole-Free Construction & Complete Optical Opacity
Light-tight manufacturing eliminates the microscopic pinholes present in standard foil, providing complete and verified exclusion of visible and near-infrared light across the full width and length of every roll. This is a manufacturing quality attribute absent from standard foil at equivalent gauge and purity — not achievable by simply increasing thickness.
High Electrical & Thermal Conductivity
Electrical resistivity of 2.67 µΩ·cm at 20 °C and thermal conductivity of 237 W/m·K are maintained across all purity grades — with conductivity improving incrementally at 5N and 6N as trace impurity scattering is reduced. Light-tight construction does not degrade these bulk properties relative to standard foil at equivalent purity.
Low Density
At 2.70 g/cm³, light-tight aluminum foil offers the same mass advantage over copper and steel as standard foil — making it suitable for weight-sensitive enclosure and shielding applications where opacity, conductivity, and low mass must all be achieved simultaneously.
Naturally Passivating Oxide Layer
The self-limiting Al₂O₃ surface layer provides corrosion resistance without surface treatment across all purity grades. At higher purities, the oxide layer is thinner and more chemically uniform — relevant to bonding reliability and surface-sensitive applications where the foil is used in direct contact with detector components or optical surfaces.
Low Outgassing at 5N & 6N
At 5N and 6N purity, light-tight foil exhibits low outgassing behavior compatible with ultra-high vacuum environments — combining the optical isolation properties of light-tight construction with the vacuum cleanliness required in photoemission and surface physics instrumentation where both constraints apply simultaneously.
Wide Temper Range
Available in fully annealed, half-hard, hard, and as-rolled tempers — with tensile strength from 50–90 MPa (soft) to 130–195 MPa (hard) — allowing mechanical properties to be selected independently of purity grade for enclosure fabrication, wrapping, and precision cutting applications.
Industrial Applications
Light-Tight Aluminum Foil is used across photonics, optics, scientific instrumentation, pharmaceutical packaging, and vacuum technology — wherever complete optical opacity and purity-appropriate aluminum performance must be combined in a single foil format:
- ✦ Photosensitive Material Packaging & Pharmaceutical Barriers
- Commercial-grade light-tight foil provides reliable optical and moisture barrier performance for photosensitive film, photographic materials, and pharmaceutical blister packaging — applications where pinhole-free construction prevents light-induced degradation over extended storage periods without requiring high purity grades.
- ✦ Optical Detector Housings & Photomultiplier Tube Shielding
- 99.99% light-tight foil is used to construct and line optical detector housings and photomultiplier tube enclosures, where the combination of pinhole-free construction and reduced surface impurity levels ensures that low-level photon signals are not masked by stray light ingress or surface-related noise contributions.
- ✦ Dark-Field Microscopy & Low-Signal Optical Setups
- Used in dark-field microscopy and other low-background optical configurations where any light leakage through foil defects would raise the noise floor — the 99.99% grade providing the balance of optical integrity and surface quality required in precision laboratory imaging environments.
- ✦ Photoemission Spectroscopy Chambers & Laser System Baffling
- 5N light-tight foil combines confirmed opacity with the low outgassing behavior required in photoemission spectroscopy chambers, laser beam dumps, and UHV baffling applications — where both light exclusion and vacuum cleanliness must be maintained and standard foil grades would introduce unacceptable outgassing or contamination risk.
- ✦ Synchrotron Beamline Apertures & Cryogenic Optical Isolation
- 6N light-tight foil is used at synchrotron beamline apertures, X-ray detector shields, and in cryogenic optical isolation assemblies for fundamental physics experiments — where simultaneous requirements for pinhole-free opacity, minimal elemental background, and UHV compatibility make ultra-high purity the only appropriate specification.
Synonyms
Material Properties
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Atomic number | 13 |
| Crystal structure | Face centred cubic |
| Electronic structure | Ne 3s² 3p¹ |
| Valences shown | 3 |
| Atomic weight( amu ) | 26.98154 |
| Thermal neutron absorption cross-section( Barns ) | 0.232 |
| Photo-electric work function( eV ) | 4.2 |
| Atomic radius - Goldschmidt( nm ) | 0.143 |
| Ionisation potential( No./eV ) | 4/ 120 |
| Ionisation potential( No./eV ) | 5/ 154 |
| Ionisation potential( No./eV ) | 6/ 190 |
| Ionisation potential( No./eV ) | 1/ 5.99 |
| Ionisation potential( No./eV ) | 3/ 28.4 |
| Ionisation potential( No./eV ) | 2/ 18.8 |
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Material condition | Soft |
| Material condition | Hard |
| Poisson's ratio | 0.345 |
| Poisson's ratio | 0.345 |
| Bulk modulus( GPa ) | 75.2 |
| Bulk modulus( GPa ) | 75.2 |
| Tensile modulus( GPa ) | 70.6 |
| Tensile modulus( GPa ) | 70.6 |
| Hardness - Vickers( kgf mm⁻² ) | 21 |
| Hardness - Vickers( kgf mm⁻² ) | 35-48 |
| Tensile strength( MPa ) | 130-195 |
| Tensile strength( MPa ) | 50-90 |
| Yield strength( MPa ) | 110-170 |
| Yield strength( MPa ) | 10‑35 |
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Electrical resistivity( µOhmcm ) | 2.67@20°C |
| Superconductivity critical temperature( K ) | 1.175 |
| Temperature coefficient( K⁻¹ ) | 0.0045@0-100°C |
| Thermal emf against Pt (cold 0C - hot 100C)( mV ) | 0.42 |
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Boiling point( C ) | 2467 |
| Density( gcm⁻³ ) | 2.7@20°C |
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Melting point( C ) | 660.4 |
| Latent heat of evaporation( J g⁻¹ ) | 10800 |
| Latent heat of fusion( J g⁻¹ ) | 388 |
| Specific heat( J K⁻¹ kg⁻¹ ) | 900@25°C |
| Thermal conductivity( W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ ) | 237@0-100°C |
| Coefficient of thermal expansion( x10⁻⁶ K⁻¹ ) | 23.5@0-100°C |
Tolerances
| Thickness | <0.01mm | ±25% |
|---|---|---|
| Thickness | 0.01mm - 0.05mm | ±15% |
| Thickness | >0.05mm | ±10% |
| Linear dimension | <100mm | ±1mm |
| Linear dimension | >=100mm | +2 / -1% |