Changes in pretreated 5182, 6061 and 7075 aluminum surfaces on exposure to moisture for short times was studied. The pretreatment used was the standard ASTM method for FPL etching of aluminum. The moisture treatment used was either immersion in water at 81° C or exposure to water vapor at 81° C. The experimental techniques used to analyze the pretreated aluminum surfaces before and after exposure to moisture were ESCA or XPS, AES, high resolution SEM, and specular reflectance FTIR. There was a change in the surface topography on exposure of the aluminum surfaces to water as determined using high resolution SEM. Stoichiometric calculations based on XPS analysis were made to estimate the amount of excess water present on the surface. Water was present on the surface before exposure to moisture, for all three alloys. The amount of water present on the surface was found to decrease with increasing times of exposure to water for all three alloys. This result was consistent with the model that pseudoboehmite formed on the surface was being converted into boehmite at longer times of exposure to water. The thickness of the oxide layer was found to increase with time of exposure to water based on ESCA results. The same conclusion was reached by depth profiling the oxide layer using AES. The rate of increase in the concentration of pseudoboehmite on the surfaces as calculated from FTIR data went in the order 7075 < 5182 < 6061. The activation energy for the third step (transport of soluble species to the surface) in the conversion of surface Al₂O₃ to AlOOH was calculated from FTIR results to be 3.5 kcal mol⁻¹. / Master of Science