To improve the atomic oxygen (AO) erosion resistance of Kapton, boehmite-AlOOH films were deposited on it by sol-gel method and AO exposure experiments were performed in a ground-based AO simulator. The results indicate that the AlOOH-coated samples show an improved AO resistance and their erosion yield is one order of magnitude less than that of pristine Kapton. Furthermore, the AlOOH-coated Kapton remained optically stable under AO exposure. The AlOOH film structure before and after AO exposure was analyzed by scanning electronic microscope, atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. It was found that after AO exposure, the film structure tends to transfer from an octahedral coordination for AlOOH to an octahedral and tetrahedral mixed-coordination for gamma-Al2O3. This implies that a more stable gamma-Al2O3 structure could be formed in AlOOH film during AO exposure. The AO erosion mechanism of the coated Kapton was discussed. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.