Heat Treatment Effects on the Phase Evolutions of Partially Stabilized Grade Zirconia Plasma Sprayed Coatings

Partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ) is an attractive material for thermal barrier coating. Zirconia exists in three crystallographic phases: cubic, tetragonal and monoclinic. Especially, the phase transformation of tetragonal phase to monoclinic phase accompanies significant volume expansion, so this transition generally results in cracking and contributes to the failure of the TBC system. Both the plasma sprayed ZrO$_2$-8Y$_2$O$_3$ (YSZ) coat and the ZrO$_2$,-25CeO$_2$,-2.5Y$_2$O$_3$ (CYSZ) coat are isothermally heat -treated at 130$0^{\circ}C$ and 150$0^{\circ}C$ for 100hr and cooled at different cooling rates. The monoclinic phase is not discovered in all the CYSZ annealed at 130$0^{\circ}C$ and 150$0^{\circ}C$. In the 150$0^{\circ}C$ heat-treated specimens, the YSZ contains some monoclinic phase while none exists in the 130$0^{\circ}C$ heat-treated YSZ coat. For the YSZ, the different phase transformation behaviors at the two temperatures are due to the stabilizer concentration of high temperature phases and grain growth. For the YSZ with 150$0^{\circ}C$-100hr annealing, the amount of monoclinic phase increased with the slower cooling rate. The extra oxygen vacancy, thermal stress, and c to t'phase transformation might suppress the t to m martensitic phase transformation.