Improvement of adhesion and cohesion in plasma-sprayed ceramic coatings by heterogeneous modification of nonbonded lamellar interface using high strength adhesive infiltration

The mechanical properties and related performance of thermally sprayed ceramic coatings are degraded by their relatively low adhesion and cohesion resulting from the limited bonding at substrate/splat interface and splat/splat interface. In this study, the influence of high strength adhesive infiltration on the microstructure and erosion performance of plasma-sprayed Al ₂O₃ coatings was investigated to understand the improving mechanism of adhesion and cohesion through heterogeneous modification of nonbonded interfaces. Element distribution maps proved that the adhesive can be infiltrated from the coating surface to the coating/substrate interface through the inter-connected open pores including in-plane nonbonded area and microcracks in splats. Both adhesion and cohesion can be significantly improved by the heterogeneous modification of nonbonded lamellar interfaces of both splat/splat and splat/substrate through adhesive infiltration. The adhesive strength of the coating was increased from several MPa to ~50 MPa after adhesive infiltration. The erosion resistance at a large particle jet angle was improved by a factor of 3 due to the significant improvement of the lamellar cohesion, although the erosion resistance at a small particle jet angle was not significantly influenced.