The unusual occurrence of anodic films of unlimited thickness has been recently reported for anodizing of tantalum in certain dehydrated, high-temperature electrolytes with organic solvents. The precise nature of these films is still uncertain. In the present work, non-thickness-limited (NTL) anodic films were formed at 0.1 mA cm(-2) on aluminium and tantalum in glycerol/phosphate electrolyte at 453 K and then examined by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS). The results disclosed films composed of alumina and tantala, free of phosphorus 3 species at the resolution of the measurements. Most notably, the densities of the NTL alumina and tantala were about 2.4 and 3.6 g cm(-3), respectively. These values are less than those of compact anodic films of the type usually grown at high efficiency in aqueous electrolytes by respective factors of about 1.3 and 2.2. This difference in density is attributed primarily to the morphology and structure of NTL film materials, which incorporate significant porosity. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.