The oxygen permeability (OP) of SIOX increased significantly
during the storage time. The largest increase in OP of SIOX, more
than 10 times the pre-retort value,was measured immediately after
retorting (Table 1). This increase reflects a combination of physically
constrained H2O molecules and chemically interacting water
molecules via hydrogen bonding to the SiOx surface (Song et al.,
1998). Moisture diffuses into the film and reacts with strained Si-O
bonds and reconstructs them into a minimum energy configuration.
Changes in the intrinsic stress in SiOx films upon long-term
exposure to an ambient atmosphere leads to cracks (Henry et al.,
1999; Song et al., 1998). During the thermal processing and
elevated storage conditions, water diffused into the SiOx film
structure and reacted with strained Si-O bonds and thus creating
2004).