Microstructures of Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Coatings by Plasma Spray-Physical Vapor Deposition

As a novel processing technology, plasma spray-physical vapor deposition (PS-PVD) has exhibited potential capability to shape the sprayed coating microstructures. In this paper, yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) coatings were produced at spray distances in the range of 450-1400 mm by PS-PVD. The morphologies of the coatings, going from a denser type of layer to the columnar structure, along the axial and radial directions of the plasma plume were studied. Along the axial direction, five YSZ coating microstructures including “dense lamellar structure,” “closely packed columnar structure,” “quasi-columnar structure with more nanoparticles,” “EB-PVD-like columnar structure,” and “quasi-columnar structure with less nanoparticles” were achieved, respectively. Along the radial direction, similar microstructures of coatings were obtained. A simple structure spatial distribution model was developed for demonstrating the mapping of various YSZ coating microstructures.