Thermal barrier coatings produced by chemical vapor deposition

Yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) can be employed as thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) on Ni-based super alloys in gas turbines and aircraft engines. The YSZ coatings have been fabricated by atmospheric plasma spraying or electron-beam physical vapor deposition. The increase in operation temperature of gas turbines demands another fabrication process to obtain high quality TBCs. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) can be an alternative route to prepare TBCs due to excellent conformal coverage and columnar microstructure. This paper reviews the fabrication of YSZ films by conventional thermal CVD and plasma CVD intended for TBCs. A new laser CVD developed by our group with a high deposition rate of 660 μm h^-1 was also briefly introduced.