Thermal barrier coatings on the base of samarium zirconates

The zirconates of rare earth elements, such as Sm2Zr2O7, can be an alternative material for zirconia modified by yttria (8YSZ) usually used as an insulation layer in thermal barrier coatings (TBC) systems. This chapter describes the morphology of feedstock zirconate powder, internal morphology and selected properties of different samarium zirconate TBC systems. These included: composite TBC coatings of Sm2Zr2O7 + 8YSZ type with different ratio of both used to coatings deposition powders (25/75, 50/50 and 75/25) as well as the TBC of double ceramic layer (DCL) type with an 8YSZ internal layer and an outer layer of Sm2Zr2O7 type, and a monolayer TBC based on Sm2Zr2O7. Another presented subject is related to the oxidation resistance of TBC systems during static oxidation test at temperature 1100°C. In this case, the special emphasis was taken on the characterization of thermally grown oxides (TGO) zone thickness where the most important phenomena related with overall live-time of TBC systems usually take place.