Normally the conventional thermal spray processes as the atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) have to use easily flowable powders in a size range between 10 and 100 µm. In contrast the suspension plasma spraying (SPS) makes it possible to process nano sized particles directly. Due to the use of nano materials new microstructures and properties could be generated. One point is the possibility to influence the porosity level, its size range and micro crack densities in a wide band. Microstructure features like the porosity and cracks serve as scattering centres and lead to changes of optical properties. Furthermore the thermal conductivity is affected by the porosity level. In this work yttria partially stabilized zirconia coatings were generated by the SPS and APS process. The influence of the different microstructures on the thermal conductivity, the hemispherical reflectance and transmittance for wavelengths between 0.3 to 2.5 µm has been investigated. Due to the higher porosity and crack level of the SPS coatings the thermal conductivity and hemispherical transmittance was significant reduced.