New double-ceramic-layer thermal barrier coatings based on zirconia–rare earth composite oxides

A series of La2O3–ZrO2–CeO2 composite oxides were synthesized by solid-state reaction. The final product keeps fluorite structure when the molar ratio Ce/Zr ≥ 0.7/0.3, and below this ratio only mixtures of La2Zr2O7 (pyrochlore) and La2O3–CeO2 (fluorite) exist. Averagely speaking, the increase of CeO2 content gives rise to the increase of thermal expansion coefficient and the reduction of thermal conductivity, but La2(Zr0.7Ce0.3)2O7 has the lowest sintering ability and the lowest thermal conductivity which could be explained by the theory of phonon scattering. Based on the large thermal expansion coefficient of La2Ce3.25O9.5, the low thermal conductivities and low sintering abilities of La2Zr2O7 and La2(Zr0.7Ce0.3)2O7, double-ceramic-layer thermal barrier coatings were prepared. The thermal cycling tests indicate that such a design can largely improve the thermal cycling lives of the coatings. Since no single material that has been studied so far satisfies all the requirements for high temperature thermal barrier coatings, double-ceramic-layer coating may be an important development direction of thermal barrier coatings.