Thermal and mechanical properties of Yb&Mg co-doped InFeZnO4

•In0.4Yb0.6FeZn1-xMgxO4 (x = 0 − 1.0) ceramics were synthesized by solid-state reaction.•In0.4Yb0.6FeZn0.5Mg0.5O4 reaches the lowest thermal conductivity of 1.13 W m−1 K−1 at 1000 °C.•In0.4Yb0.6FeZn0.5Mg0.5O4 has good thermal stability and thermal expansion coefficient of 11.63 × 10−6 K−1 at 1350 °C.•In0.4Yb0.6FeZn0.5Mg0.5O4 material has good abradable property.

In0.4Yb0.6FeZnO4 was confirmed to possess the lowest thermal conductivity in Yb-doped InFeZnO4. To further reduce the thermal conductivity, In0.4Yb0.6FeZn1-xMgxO4 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2,…, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0) ceramics were synthesized by solid state reaction at 1300 °C for 30 h. XRD results indicated that single phase In0.4Yb0.6FeZn1-xMgxO4 ceramics were successfully synthesized with layered YbFe2O4-type crystal structure in the hexagonal R3¯m space group. It was found that the thermal conductivity of In0.4Yb0.6FeZn0.5Mg0.5O4 (x = 0.5) reached a minimum value of 1.13 W m−1 K−1 at 1000 °C. The investigations on the thermal stability, thermal expansion coefficient, abradable property and erosion wear resistance indicate that In0.4Yb0.6FeZn0.5Mg0.5O4 ceramics are promising thermal barrier coatings.