In the thermal spray process, particulate materials can be melted by plasma atmosphere due to its high local temperature from 8700 °C to 15,000 °C. Therefore, the material powders turn into droplets after being melted by injection into the hot flame. Molten droplets are accelerated toward a substrate and form the splats which quickly solidify; finally, the film is formed by pile-up splats. Splat morphology and post treatment can determine the microstructure, mechanical and physical properties of the coating. In this study, BaTiO 3 films were deposited onto a mirror polished stainless steel substrates kept at room temperature and 500 °C. At the elevated temperatures, the desorption of adsorbates and condensate at the substrate surface are the most important factor which change the morphology of the splats, from irregular- splash morphology to disk-like shape. Splat morphology can determine deposit microstructure and improve the coating properties. The morphology of individual splats and the post treated films were studied using scanning electron microscopy. Results indicated that the porosity in the film produced at room temperature was higher than that in the film deposited on the heated substrates. Also, post heat treatment can improve coating properties

Development of TBCs allowing higher combustion temperatures in gas turbines is of high commercial interest since it results in higher fuel efficiency and lower emissions. It is well known that TBCs produced by suspension plasma spraying (SPS) have lower thermal conductivity as compared to conventional systems due to their very fine porous microstructure. Moreover, columnar structured SPS TBCs are significantly cheaper to produce as compared to the conventionally used electron beam – physical vapour deposition (EB-PVD). However, SPS TBCs have not yet been commercialised due to low reliability and life expectancy of the coatings. Lifetime of a TBC system is significantly dependent on topcoat-bondcoat interface topography. The objective of this work was to study the effect of topcoat-bondcoat interface in SPS TBCs by changing bondcoat spray parameters and bondcoat surface heat treatment. High velocity air fuel (HVAF) spraying was used for bondcoat deposition while axial-SPS was used for topcoat deposition. Same topcoat spray parameters were used for all samples. Lifetime was examined by thermal cyclic fatigue and thermal shock testing. The influence of surface roughness on lifetime has been discussed. The results show that HVAF could be a suitable process for bondcoat deposition to achieve long lifetime SPS TBCs.

Hydroxyapatite (HAP) is available in powder form for plasma spraying. HAP powder was fabricated indigenously in the Rod form of diameter 4.17mm. This rod was sprayed with the help of MEC make Rodojet 9810 (flame spray process). Rodojet parameter were optimised for HAP rod. Crystallinity and purity level of HAP rod was measured. XRD and SEM were used to analysed the microstructure of rod and coating. The microstructure, mechanical properties of the coating were investigated, and measure the Ca/P ratio of coating and rod. The micro-hardness and elastic modules were determined by indentation tests and bond strength was determined by tensile test. The results showed that the microstructure, mechanical properties was observed same as in plasma spray process. Porosity was observed more than 15%. The bond strength of coating was observed 20 MPa. Scratch test was done to measure the cohesive strength of coating. This new experiments play an important role for reduction the cost of the HAP powder coating.

The ZrO 2 -7%Y 2 O 3 powder produced by domestic company was used to make dense vertically cracked (DVC) thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) via the High energy plasma spray system. The influence of preheating temperature of substrates, the thickness of single deposition and spray power on the microstructure of the coatings was studied in detail. The porosity of the thermal barrier coatings prepared by Delta gun was 2.8%-7.3% and bonding strength of the coatings was 20-30MPa. The results demonstrated that the TBCs with DVC structure had excellent thermal shock resistance, and the 1100°C thermal shock lifetime was 206 cycles, which was obviously better than different coating structure by conventional APS (life less than 100 cycles). The mechanism of the failure of the TBCs in the thermal shock process was investigated.

Inter-lamellae bonding within thermal sprayed coatings is one of the most important factors influencing the properties and performance of coatings. It has been revealed that there exists a critical bonding temperature for a molten ceramic splat to form the bonding to the same splat surface. The erosion behaviors of thermal sprayed coatings are significantly influenced by the interface bonding between lamellae. In this study, the erosion behavior of plasma-sprayed TiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 and YSZ coatings deposited at different deposition temperatures was investigated. The cross section of plasma sprayed coatings was characterized by the scanning electron microscope. It was revealed that the coatings deposited at room temperature exhibit a typical lamellar structure with numerous unbonded interfaces, whereas the coatings prepared at the temperature above the critical bonding temperature present a dense structure with well bonded lamellae. The erosion rate significantly decreases with the improvement of interface bonding. In addition, the erosion mechanisms of the conventional coatings and the lamellae well bonded coatings were further discussed. The unbonded interfaces act as precracks accelerating the erosion of plasma-sprayed coatings. Thus, controlling inter-lamellae bonding based on the critical bonding temperature is conducive to the improvement of erosion resistance of plasma-sprayed ceramic coatings.

In the present study, a novel and practical method, white light interference, was proposed to characterize the lamellar pores covered by thermally sprayed YSZ and LZ splats. In this method, only an ordinary optical microscopy (OM) was employed. Colorful Newton rings and parabolic shapes of the lamellar pores were widely observed by OM. The crack spacing and the shapes of the lamellar pores captured by OM were well consistent with those by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and focus ion beam (FIB). Besides, mechanical analyses were carried out and the results were well consistent with those by OM. Most importantly, the essential fact that the lamellar pores resulted from transverse cracking/delamination in thermal sprayings was highly elaborated.

Thermally-sprayed LZ/YSZ double-layer coatings are promising candidate for the next generation thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) due to exceedingly low thermal conductivity and superior high-temperature phase stability. However, a delamination failure at LZ and YSZ interface were widely observed during TBCs service. Till today, the interfacial microstructure between LZ and YSZ remains unclear. In the present study, LZ splats were deposited on YSZ substrate to serve as a LZ/YSZ interface. The interfacial microstructure was explored by focused ion beam (FIB) and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM). The interfacial defects at splat interface were clearly observed and thoroughly discussed. These results would shed light on deeply understanding the interfacial failure of double-layer LZ/YSZ coatings.

The zirconates of rare earth elements, such as Sm 2 Zr 2 O 7 ceramic, can be an alternative material, for commercially and widely used for insulation layers in thermal barrier coatings (TBC) systems, zirconia modified by yttria (8YSZ). Presented article described the internal morphology of composite TBC coatings of Sm 2 Zr 2 O 7 +8YSZ type with different ratio of both used to coatings deposition powders (25/75, 50/50 and 75/25) as well as the TBC of double ceramic layer (DCL) type with a 8YSZ internal layer and the outer layer of Sm 2 Zr 2 O 7 type. The main subject of presented investigations is related with the oxidation resistance of TBC systems during static oxidation test at temperature 1100°C. In this case, the special emphasis was on characterization of thermally grown oxides (TGO) zone thickness where the most important phenomena related with overall live-time of TBC system usually take place.

Measuring the cohesive strength of thermally sprayed coatings is relatively difficult matter, which can be accessed in many directions. This issue is nowadays solved by use of Scratch test method. This method is not completely sufficient for the cohesive strength testing because the coating is under load of combined stresses during the Scratch test. The reason to develop this method was need for exact measurement of tensile cohesion toughness of thermally sprayed coatings, which could provide results as close to a classic tensile test as possible. Another reason for development of this method was the impossibility of direct comparison with results obtained by other methods. Tested coatings were prepared using HP / HVOF (Stellite 6, NiCrBSi, CrC-NiCr and Hastelloy C-276). These coatings were selected as commonly used in commercial sector and on because of rising customer demand for ability to provide such coating characteristics. The tested coatings were evaluated in terms of cohesive strength (method based on tensile strength test). Final fractures were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy and EDS analysis. As expected higher cohesive strength showed metallic coatings with top results of coating Stellite 6. Carbide coatings showed approximately third of the cohesion strength in comparison with metal based coating.

Thermally sprayed ceramic coatings are used in environments requiring good wear- and corrosion resistance among others. However, a typical issue with ceramic coatings is their low impact resistance and tendency to fail catastrophically by cracking. In bulk ceramics, the Al 2 O 3 -ZrO 2 –composition has been of interest for long since already small additions of ZrO 2 into Al 2 O 3 have shown improvements in fracture toughness compared to pure Al 2 O 3 . Efforts are being made to induce this increased resistance to fracturing in thermally sprayed coatings as well, resulting in higher wear resistance due to a more predictable behavior and damage-tolerance. In this work, Al 2 O 3 -ZrO 2 -coatings have been deposited by atmospheric plasma spray (APS) and high-velocity oxy-fuel spray (HVOF) processes. The wear characteristics of the coatings were evaluated with cavitation erosion, delving into the mechanics of the erosion and the resulting microstructural changes in the coatings. Evidence of phase transformation of t-ZrO 2 to m-ZrO 2 was found during the erosion. The HVOF-sprayed coating exhibited greater wear resistance against the cavitating bubbles due to its finer microstructure.

Decomposition of the nitride ceramic particles like aluminium nitride (AlN) during conventional thermal spray process prevents their deposition on the substrate. Reactive plasma spraying (RPS) is a promising solution to fabricate AlN coatings. It is based on reaction and deposition of molten particles in active nitrogen ambient to form the AlN phase. Several thick AlN based coatings were fabricate successfully by reactive plasma spraying of aluminium and/or alumina particles. This study shows our recent achievements of fabrication of AlN coatings with improved conductivity. It was possible to fabricate AlN based coatings through reactive spraying of fine alumina particles mixed with fine AlN additives. Using small particle size powders improved the particles melting, surface area, therefore nitriding conversion and the AlN content. The fabricated AlN based coating contains several of oxide phases, with low density and high porosity, therefore its thermal conductivity was very low (about 2.6 W/m.K). To fabricate AlN coatings with high thermal conductivity, a liquid phase promoting additive (yttria) was added to the feedstock powder. It assists the formation of the yttrium aluminate (Y-Al-O) phase and therefore the sintering of the coatings during heat treatment. Finally, AlN coating with improved thermal conductivity (above 90 W/m.K) was developed.

In this study, laser glazing is used to densify plasma-sprayed YSZ coatings on carbon steel substrates. Melt pool characteristics are assessed for different laser settings and treatment conditions, including substrate preheating. SEM examination of coating surfaces and cross-sections before and after laser treatment shows how microstructure responds to process parameters. It also shows how preheating widens the melt pool, deepens the laser-glazed layer, and reduces the surface density of cracks, thus improving coating quality.

This work evaluates the high-temperature oxidation behavior of thermal barrier coatings by means of impedance spectroscopy. TBCs consisting of YSZ topcoats and NiCoCrAlYTa bond coats were deposited on Ni-based superalloy substrates by atmospheric plasma spraying. Test specimens were heated in air at 1000 °C for different periods of time from 5 h to 250 h. SEM-EDS analysis of the thermally grown oxide (TGO) shows that it mainly contains alumina and grew at a parabolic rate with increasing oxidation time. The resistance of the TGO, as determined by impedance spectroscopy, was found to increase at similar rate. Impedance spectroscopy also revealed an increase in YSZ grain boundary resistance corresponding to grain boundary cracking that occurred in the first 50 h of heating. The YSZ grain boundary resistance remained relatively constant over the interval of 50 to 150 h, but showed a slight decrease beyond 150 h mainly due to sintering effects.

SiO 2 -TiO 2 coatings were prepared by atmospheric plasma spraying followed by hydrothermal treatment in a solution of hydrogen fluoride. The as-sprayed coatings mainly consisted of rutile and quartz phases, which remained relatively unchanged during etching. All treated coatings have the typical characteristics of plasma-sprayed deposits, exhibiting rough surfaces with many splats. Differences in surface structure can be observed, however, at the nanoscale, depending on treatment conditions. Treatments of 60 min at 100 °C appear to be most beneficial, resulting in nanoporous coatings that are shown to promote cell proliferation and, in past studies, have been found to improve osteoblast adhesion.

In the present work, YSZ coatings were deposited on graphite substrates by plasma spray-physical vapor deposition (PS-PVD) in order to study the influence of spray distance on microstructure and durability. Four coating samples were examined in detail via SEM and XRD analysis. The results show that the as-sprayed YSZ has a dense lamellar-columnar microstructure with low porosity. Both monoclinic and tetragonal zirconia were detected in the coatings along with ZrO 2 -x, the latter indicating that oxygen loss occurred at short spraying distances. Coating hardness and Young’s modulus were also measured and were found to vary with spraying distance as well.

In the present study, Al 2 O 3 and Al 2 O 3 -Y 2 O 3 composite coatings were deposited by atmospheric plasma spraying and compared based on microstructure, hardness, and sliding wear behavior. The mass ratio of α-Al 2 O 3 /γ-Al 2 O 3 was found to be 0.53 in the composite, compared to 0.08 in the alumina layer, which explains why the Al 2 O 3 -Y 2 O 3 coatings are harder and better conductors of heat. Tribological tests show that the friction coefficients of the composite coating samples are more stable and the wear rates lower, which may be related to the formation of a graphite transferred film on abraded surfaces.

Tubular asymmetric LSCF oxygen transport membranes (OTMs) were prepared on stainless steel substrates by PS-PVD and supersonic air-gas plasma spraying (SAPS). The microstructure of the thermally sprayed OTMs is examined by cross-sectional imaging and oxygen permeability is assessed via oxygen permeation flux measurements carried out at atmospheric pressure in an air-helium gradient. The findings from the cross-sectional analysis and oxygen permeation tests are reported and discussed.

High-purity nanocrystallized YSZ powders were used to manufacture thermal barrier coatings by air plasma spraying. After spraying, the coating samples were aged at temperatures of 1200, 1300, and 1400 °C. Coating samples made from ordinary YSZ powders were aged at the same temperatures. XRD analysis shows significant tetragonal-to-monoclinic phase transformation in the reference coatings after 100 h at 1400 °C in contrast to the phase stability exhibited by high-purity YSZ. The sintering behavior of the YSZ coatings was also examined along with the influence of MCrAlY oxidation.

In this study, yttria films with high thermal shock resistance were synthesized from a metal-EDTA complex by means of combustion flame spraying. A rotating stage and various cooling agents were used to control substrate temperature during deposition. Although thermally extreme environments were employed during synthesis, the obtained films showed only a few cracks and some minor peeling in their microstructures. In the case of a Y 2 O 3 film synthesized using substrate rotation and water atomization, the porosity was found to be 22.8% and the temperature of the film immediately after deposition was 453 °C, owing to a high heat of evaporation in the cooling water.

In this work, alumina coatings are produced by atmospheric plasma spraying using dry-ice blasting to prepare substrate surfaces. Feedstock powder and coating microstructure are examined and dielectric strength and ac-dc breakdown voltages are measured. The results show that dry-ice blasting improves the dielectric properties of alumina coatings produced by atmospheric plasma spraying.