Rare Earth Zirconium Oxide as a New Material for Suspension Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings

The new rare earth zirconium oxide composition, with three different rare-earth oxides evenly distributed in zirconia matrix, offers attractive properties such as: (i) superior phase stability; (ii) low thermal conductivity and (iii) high fracture toughness for the next generation thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). However, it is noteworthy the lack of data regarding their processing at industrial scales and performance tests to provide consistent information for their application as TBCs. Therefore, the objective of the present study is to develop strain-tolerant porous-columnar microstructure coatings employing axial suspension plasma spraying of the rare earth zirconium oxide and provide data regarding their thermal insulation and thermal cycling lifetime. Spray process and coating properties of the new material composition are benchmarked against state of the art suspension sprayed 7-8 wt.% YSZ coatings.