Plasma-Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings with Enhanced Splat Bonding for CMAS and Corrosion Protection

The infiltration of molten CMAS in thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) at high temperature is significantly affected by the microstructure of the ceramic coating. Enhancing the bonding ratio between splats can reduce the interconnected pores and suppress the infiltration of the molten CMAS into the coating. In this study, a dual-layered (DL) TBC with the dense 8YSZ on the top of the conventional porous 8YSZ was proposed to enhance CMAS corrosion of atmospheric plasma-sprayed YSZ. The dense YSZ coating with improved lamellar bonding was deposited at a higher deposition temperature. The microstructure of the coatings before and after CMAS attack test was characterized by scanning electron microscopy. It was clearly revealed that by adjusting the microstructure and applying a dense ceramic layer with the improved interface bonding on the top of porous TBC, the infiltration of CMAS into porous YSZ coating can be effectively suppressed. Moreover, by designing DL TBCs, the thermal conductivity of the TBC system exhibits a limited increase. Thus with the design of DL structure, the TBCs with high CMAS corrosion resistance and low thermal conductivity can be achieved.