In this study, we report on the use of optical emission spectrometry (OES) for the online detection of changes in the Al concentration ejected in a 1.0 mol dm(-3) sulphuric acid electrolyte during galvanostatic anodising of Al thin film substrates. The technique relies on the coupling of an Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) spectrometer to a specially designed electrochemical flow cell. This has allowed to correlate, for the first time, the kinetics of Al dissolution to well-established morphological changes related to porous anodic oxide formation and growth. A deconvolution algorithm was first developed in order to decompose the experimental ICP/OES signal into elementary distributions, each one characteristic for a specific kinetic regime. The highest dissolution rate systematically occurred during the first step, associated with barrier oxide formation. This is followed by a systematic decrease in the rate of Al dissolution during pore formation. During steady-state porous oxide growth. the Al dissolution rate increases again, but still remains below the level established during barrier oxide growth. In each of these three kinetic regimes, a linear variation of the Al dissolution rate with current density was observed in the range 0.5-5.0 mA cm(-2), with slope values of, respectively, 35 +/- 2, 24 +/- 2 and 28 +/- 1 mu g C-1. Regarding the temporal transitions between the different regimes, a desynchronisation was observed between the kinetic (dissolution) and morphological transitions, the time offset going in opposite directions for barrier and steady-state porous oxide growth. Finally, using the measured Al dissolution rates, the current density dependence of the film formation efficiency for both porous and barrier oxide growth has been established. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.