Microstructure and Ablation Behavior of Very Low-Pressure Plasma Sprayed ZrB₂-Based Coatings

The effect of deposition pressure on the microstructure and ablation behavior of ZrB2 coatings deposited by very low pressure plasma spraying is investigated. The results show that under a chamber pressure less than 50 kPa, as the spray chamber pressure decreases, the porosity of the coating deposited at the same distance decreases, and the coating prepared under 100 Pa presents the lowest porosity of 1.79 %. Furthermore, among the ZrB2 coatings deposited at 100 Pa, 5 kPa, 10 kPa and 50 kPa, the dense coating deposited at 100 Pa showed the lowest ablation rate of 0.33 μm/s, 0.75±0.08 mg/s.