Corrosion Science 85 (2014) 87–93

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Corrosion Science
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/corsci

Hot corrosion behavior of Sc2O3–Y2O3–ZrO2 thermal barrier coatings

in presence of Na2SO4 + V2O5 molten salt
Huai-fei Liu a,⇑, Xiang Xiong b, Xiao-bin Li a, Ya-lei Wang b,⇑
a
School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha 410083, PR China
b
State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha 410083, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Sc2O3, Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2 (ScYSZ) thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) were prepared on nickel-based super-
Received 31 December 2013 alloys by air plasma spraying. Hot corrosion behavior of the ScYSZ TBCs was investigated in presence of
Accepted 2 April 2014 Na2SO4 + V2O5 salt at 1000 °C. Results show that the ScYSZ coating exhibits superior chemical stability
Available online 18 April 2014
and improved phase stability in comparison with traditional YSZ coating. During corrosion, the destabi-
lization of ScYSZ is attributed to the deficiency of stabilizers resulted from the synergic mineralization
Keywords: effect of vanadium-containing compounds. The tetragonal-to-monoclinic phase transformation of
A: Ceramic
zirconia can induce the formation of cracks in ScYSZ coating, which is responsible for the degradation
B: SEM
B: XRD
of the TBCs.
C: Hot corrosion Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction hot corrosion resistance of the traditional YSZ [18–29]. Among

Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) have been widely used in hot
sectional components of gas turbines to increase operational tem-
perature and promote engine efficiency [1–4]. A typical TBC system
is usually composed of MCrAlY (M = Ni,Co,NiCo) bond coating as
oxidation resistant layer and 6–8 wt.% Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2 (YSZ)
top coating for thermal insulation. However, the destructive
tetragonal-to-monoclinic phase transformation and serious sinter-
ing of the traditional YSZ coating limit its long-term service at tem-
perature above 1200 °C [5–8]. Moreover, the YSZ coating shows
poor hot corrosion resistance to impure contaminants (containing
vanadium, sulfur, and sodium) from low quality fuels [9–12]. Dur-
ing service, the molten sulfate and vanadate can condense on the
coating surface and penetrate into the YSZ TBCs. The chemical
reactions between molten salts and Y2O3 can result in the leaching
of stabilizer. As a result, the tetragonal zirconia transforms to
monoclinic phase accompanied with volume expansion, which
can induce the formation of cracks and lead to the degradation of
the YSZ TBCs [13–17].
In recent years, a great deal of efforts have been devoted to
explore new TBC materials by further doping traditional YSZ with
another metal oxide, such as Ta2O5, Sc2O3, La2O3, CeO2, Gd2O3,
Yb2O3, etc., for the purpose of improving the phase stability and
⇑ Corresponding authors. Tel.: +86 731 88876134; fax: +86 731 88836079.
E-mail addresses: huaifei011@126.com (H.-f. Liu), yaleipm@126.com
(Y.-l. Wang).
these multiple stabilizer systems, Sc2O3, Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2
(ScYSZ) has been proved to be one of the most promising materi-
als. It is reported that Sc2O3-rich ScYSZ powder exhibits outstand-
ing phase stability even at 1400 °C, which is much better than
that of pure Y2O3- or Sc2O3-stabilized ZrO2 [24,25]. Moreover,
the ScYSZ powder also has favorable corrosion resistance to
NaVO3 molten salt [23,26]. Jones has also reported that Sc2O3 plus
10–20 wt.% Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2 powder shows 5–10 times better
resistance to the vanadate-induced destabilization than YSZ [23].
In our previous work, 8 mol.% Sc2O3, 0.6 mol.% Y2O3-stabilized
ZrO2 was prepared by chemical co-precipitation method, the
phase stability, sintering resistance and thermal conductivity of
which were investigated in detail [30]. Results show that the
ScYSZ exhibits outstanding phase stability even at 1500 °C for
300 h. In addition, the ScYSZ has better sintering resistance and
lower thermal conductivity than YSZ. In the present paper, the
research work are mainly focused on the hot corrosion behavior
of ScYSZ coating in order to better evaluate the potential for
TBC applications.
In this work, 8 mol.% Sc2O3-0.6 mol.% Y2O3–ZrO2 (ScYSZ) ther-
mal barrier coatings were prepared on nickel-based superalloys
by air plasma spraying (APS). The hot corrosion properties of the
ScYSZ coating were studied in presence of Na2SO4 + V2O5 mixture
at 1000 °C. The phase and structure evolution of the ScYSZ coating
during corrosion are investigated. Furthermore, the hot corrosion
behavior of ScYSZ TBC is investigated and the related degradation
mechanism is also discussed.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.corsci.2014.04.001
0010-938X/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
88 H.-f. Liu et al. / Corrosion Science 85 (2014) 87–93
2. Experimental procedures
2.1. Materials and coating preparation
Nickel-based superalloy (IC 10) sheets with dimensions of
50 mm  30 mm  5 mm were used as substrates for coating prep-
aration. Commercially available Ni–25Co–20Cr–8Al–4Ta–0.6Y
(wt.%) powder was selected as bond coating (BC) material. 8 mol.%
Sc2O3-0.6 mol.% Y2O3–ZrO2 ceramic powder was prepared by chem-
ical co-precipitation method and then agglomerated using spray
drying [27]. The agglomerated powder with particle size of
35–75 lm was used as top coating (TC) material. The substrates
were grit-blasted firstly using 250-lm alumina grit to obtain a
sharp-peaked surface with a roughness of 4–6 lm, for the purpose
of improving the adherence of TBCs. Finally, BC and TC were sprayed
sequentially on the surface of superalloy by air plasma spraying
(APS) using a Plasma-Technik A3000S system (Sulzer Metco AG
F4-MB gun, Switzerland). For comparison, 8 wt.%Y2O3–ZrO2(YSZ)
TBCs were also prepared under the same condition. The detailed
parameters of plasma spraying are listed in Table 1.
2.2. Hot corrosion tests
The Na2SO4 (99.5%) + V2O5 (99.9%) mixture with mass ratio of
1:1 was selected as the corrosive salt in this study. The corrosive
salt was first spread on the surface of the TBC samples uniformly
with a salt amount of 10 mg/cm2, and then the coated samples
were dried in vacuum oven at 110 °C for 2 h. High purity quartz
crucibles being heat treated at 1000 °C in advance were used as
the sample containers. And then the quartz crucibles with samples
were positioned in an electric furnace with ambient atmosphere at
1000 °C. After a certain oxidation period (5 h or 10 h), the samples
and crucibles were removed from the furnace together and cooled
down to room temperature. After being weighed by an electronic
balance with an accuracy of 105 g, the crucibles with samples
were positioned in the electric furnace again. Meantime, some
samples were selected for the microstructure analyses. After
100 h dwelling, the residual samples were furnace-cooled down
to the room temperature. Moreover, the same corrosion tests for
the as-sprayed samples were also carried out in presence of Na2SO4
and V2O5, respectively.
2.3. Characterization
The phase compositions of the as-prepared ceramic coatings
before and after corrosion were characterized by a D/max 2550
VB + 18 kW rotating target X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyzer (Riga-
ku Ltd., Japan, Cu Ka radiation). The volume fractions of monoclinic
zirconia (%m) were calculated by the peak intensity ratio equation
as follow [15,31]:
 1 1Þ þ Im ð1 1 1Þ
Im ð1
%m ¼  1 1Þ þ Im ð1 1 1Þ þ It ð1 1 1Þ  100
I m ð1
where I represents the integrated intensity of respective peaks of
monoclinic (m) and tetragonal (t) phases.
Table 1
Parameters of plasma spraying.
Parameters NiCoCrAlTaY ScYSZ
Current (A) 500 560
Voltage (V) 70 72
Primary gas (Ar, L/min) 47 35
Secondary gas (H2, L/min) 4.7 11
Powder feed rate (g/min) 40 40
Spray distance (mm) 150 60
The surface morphologies and microstructures of the TBCs
before and after corrosion were examined by scanning electron
microscope (SEM, FEI CO., NOVA Nano 230 and JEOL-6360LV). A
thin gold coating was evaporated on the samples for electrical con-
ductivity before microscopic observation. The energy dispersive
spectrometer (EDS) was applied to identify the chemical composi-
tions of the coatings after corrosion.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Microstructure of the as-sprayed coatings
The XRD patterns of the as-sprayed ScYSZ and YSZ coatings are
shown in Fig. 1. It can be seen that both ScYSZ and YSZ coatings are
composed of tetragonal zirconia. In addition, no secondary phase,
such as Sc2O3, Y2O3, can be detected in the XRD patterns, which
indicates that the stabilizers (Sc2O3 and Y2O3) have been dissolved
in ZrO2 crystals completely by substituting Sc3+ and Y3+ for Zr4+.
From the view of crystallography, the non-transformable
tetragonal zirconia (t0 -ZrO2) and the transformable tetragonal zir-
conia (t-ZrO2) have the same tetragonal polymorph. However,
the t0 -ZrO2 presents better phase stability than t-ZrO2 due to its
smaller
pffiffiffi tetragonality [22]. Research show that the tetragonality
(c= 2a) tends to be 1.010 for t0 -ZrO2, while it is superior to 1.010
for t-ZrO2 [32]. In this study, the cell parameters (c and a) of zirco-
nia were calculated based on the XRD results of ScYSZ and YSZ
coatings. Results show that the tetragonality of ScYSZ is 1.003
(a = b = 3.6062, c = 5.1168), and which of the YSZ is 1.008
(a = b = 3.6109, c = 5.1480). Therefore, the tetragonal zirconia both
in ScYSZ and YSZ coatings can be identified as t0 -ZrO2.
Fig. 2 shows the surface morphologies of the as-sprayed ScYSZ
coating. It can be seen that the as-sprayed coating has a rough sur-
face (Fig. 2a). Obvious micro-cracks and micro-pores can be
observed on the coating surface (Fig. 2b), which are resulted from
the release of quenching stresses during solidification process. As
typical structure characteristics of plasma sprayed ceramic coat-
ings, these defects can act as penetration paths for molten salts
and oxygen during the hot corrosion process. Fig. 2c shows the
polished surface of the ScYSZ coating. It can be seen that it is
composed of fine grains with size of 200–300 nm. In addition,
the adjacent gains are connected tightly with obvious boundaries.
The polished cross-section of the as-sprayed ScYSZ TBC is
shown in Fig. 3a. It can be seen that both ScYSZ and bond coating
are deposited uniformly with thickness of about 250 lm and
180 lm, respectively. In addition, the ScYSZ coating presents a
ð1Þ
YSZ
560
72
35
11
40
60
Fig. 1. XRD patterns of the as-sprayed ScYSZ and YSZ coatings.
 H.-f. Liu et al. / Corrosion Science 85 (2014) 87–93 89

(a) (b) (c)

Cracks

500 µm 20 µm 500 nm

Fig. 2. Surface morphologies of the as-sprayed ScYSZ coating: (a) surface morphology; (b) enlarged surface and (c) polished surface.

(a) (b) (c)

Cracks
ScYSZ

NiCoCrAlTaY

100 µm 10 µm 5 µm

Fig. 3. Cross-sectional microstructures of the as-sprayed ScYSZ TBC: (a) polished cross-section; (b) and (c) fractured cross-section.

porous structure. The image analysis results indicates that the
porosity of the ScYSZ coating is about 11%, which can guarantee
a good compromise in terms of low thermal conductivity [15].
Fig. 3b and c present the fractured structures of the ScYSZ coating.
It can be seen that the sprayed ScYSZ coating exhibits typical
lamellar structure with columnar grains (Fig. 3b). Moreover, some
micro-holes and interlamellar micro-cracks can be found between
the adjacent lamellas. These micro-pores and cracks can not only
increase the strain tolerance, but also enhance the thermal shock
resistance of the ScYSZ coating during service. However, they can
also act as a diffusion channels for the corrosives and oxygen,
which is harmful to the corrosion resistance of ScYSZ TBC.
3.2. Hot corrosion behavior
Fig. 4a shows the XRD patterns obtained from the surface of
ScYSZ coating after hot corrosion in V2O5 + Na2SO4 molten slats
at 1000 °C. It can be seen that the ScYSZ coating is still composed
of single t0 -ZrO2 after 20 h corrosion (Fig. 4a). However, the repre-
sentative diffracting peaks for m (1 1 1) and mð1  1 1Þ can be
observed significantly in {1 1 1} diffraction region after 40 h and
100 h corrosion, indicating that a fraction of t0 -ZrO2 has trans-
formed to m-ZrO2 in ScYSZ coating. The volume fractions of
m-ZrO2 calculated by Eq. (1) are 10.2% and 24.6% after corrosion
for 40 h and 100 h, respectively. In addition, no obvious corrosion
product can be detected in the XRD pattern of ScYSZ coating even
after 100 h corrosion. The absence of YVO4 is probably attributed to
the rare amount of Y2O3 in ScYSZ. Fig. 4b shows the XRD patterns
of YSZ coating after corrosion under the same condition. It can be
seen that a large amount of t0 -ZrO2 has transformed to m-ZrO2 in
YSZ coating even after 20 h corrosion. Moreover, YVO4 is formed
on the surface of YSZ coating as major hot corrosion product
(Fig. 4b). According to the above results, it can be confirmed that
in presence of V2O5 + Na2SO4 molten salt, the ScYSZ coating exhib-
its superior chemical stability and improved phase stability in
comparison with YSZ coating.

(a) (b)

Fig. 4. XRD patterns obtained from the coating surface after hot corrosion in Na2SO4 + V2O5 molten slat at 1000 °C: (a) ScYSZ and (b) YSZ.
90 H.-f. Liu et al. / Corrosion Science 85 (2014) 87–93

Table 2
(a) (b) Element contents of the formed crystals on ScYSZ coating surface.

Element Equiaxed crystal Polyhedron crystal

A Content Content Content Content

(Wt.%) (At.%) (Wt.%) (At.%)
O 29.55 68.18 27.68 67.73
V 0.18 0.15 0.12 0.09
Na 0.25 0.40 0.10 0.19
Y 2.86 1.19 3.64 1.92
Zr 60.15 24.27 66.51 28.44
200 µm 50 µm S 0.16 0.19 0.09 0.11
Sc 6.85 5.62 1.86 1.52
Fig. 5. Surface morphologies of YSZ coating after 100 h corrosion in Na2SO4 + V2O5
molten salt: (a) surface morphology and (b) enlarged surface morphology.

The surface morphologies of YSZ coating after 100 h corrosion
in Na2SO4 + V2O5 molten salt are presented in Fig. 5. It can be seen
that large plate-like crystals are formed on the surface of YSZ coat-
ing after corrosion (Fig. 5a and b). The EDS analysis was preformed
to confirm the chemical compositions of the hot corrosion product.
The EDS results obtained from region A (in Fig. 5b) demonstrate
that the formed crystals are mainly composed of yttrium, vana-
dium and oxygen elements with atom percents of 25.63%, 24.38%
and 49.16%, respectively. Therefore, combined with the XRD anal-
ysis (Fig. 4b), the plate-like crystals formed on the coating surface
can be identified as YVO4. The formation of YVO4 is attributed to
chemical reaction between Y2O3 and NaVO3, which can lead to
the leaching of Y2O3 from YSZ. As a result, the t0 -ZrO2 transformed
to m-ZrO2 in YSZ coating. The possible mechanism could be
expressed as the following reactions [33]:
V2 O5 ðsÞ þ Na2 SO4 ðsÞ ! 2NaVO3 ðsÞ þ SO3 ðgÞ
ZrO2 ðY2 O3 ÞðsÞ þ 2NaVO3 ðsÞ ! m  ZrO2 ðsÞ þ 2YVO4 ðsÞ
þ Na2 OðsÞ
Fig. 6 shows the surface morphologies of the ScYSZ coating after
100 h corrosion in Na2SO4 + V2O5 mixture at 1000 °C. Compared
with YSZ, no obvious corrosion product can be observed on the cor-
roded coating surface (Fig. 6a), which is corresponding to the XRD
results (Fig. 4a). The magnified surface images of the corroded
ScYSZ coating are shown in Fig. 6b and c. It can be seen that after
100 h corrosion, the surface of ScYSZ coating exhibits a significant
difference (Fig. 6b). The coating surface is stacked by fine equiaxed
crystals embedded with large polyhedron crystals randomly
(Fig. 6c), and the crystals are remarkably larger than that before
corrosion. Table 2 presents the element contents of the formed
crystals (obtained from the region A and B in Fig. 6c). The EDS
results show that both kinds of the crystals are mainly composed
of zirconium, scandium, yttrium and oxygen elements. It is obvious
that the content of Sc element (5.62 At. %) in equiaxed crystal is
significantly higher than that in polyhedron crystal (5.62 At. %).
According to the XRD results (Fig. 4a), it can be inferred that these
two kinds of crystals should be corresponding to different phase
structure of zirconia. From the perspective of crystallography, the
t0 -ZrO2 and m-ZrO2 show significant difference in the characteris-
tics of crystal parameters. The equiaxed crystals grow in two-
dimensional direction uniformly, which is corresponding to the
equal parameters (a = b) of t0 -ZrO2. Meanwhile, the polyhedron
crystals grow fast along a certain orientation, which is correspond-
ing to the asymmetrical structure of m-ZrO2. On the other aspect,
the t0 -ZrO2 was stabilized by Sc2O3 and Y2O3 for ScYSZ coating.
The high content of stabilizers indicates that the equiaxed crystals
should be t0 -ZrO2. Similarly, the polyhedron crystals should be m-
ZrO2 due to the low content of Sc element. The deficiency of stabi-
lizer (Sc2O3) induced the phase transformation of zirconia in ScYSZ
coating. It is well known that the process of t0 -ZrO2 to m-ZrO2 is a
diffusionless, martensitic-type phase transformation accompanied
with a large destructive volume expansion (3–5%) [12,31]. The
ð2Þ stresses caused by the volume expansion can induce the formation
of cracks (Fig. 6a), and then lead to the degradation of TBCs.
During the corrosion in Na2SO4 + V2O5 molten salt, the defi-
ciency of stabilizer in YSZ is attributed to the formation of YVO4
ð3Þ
resulted from the chemical reactions between Y2O3 and corrosive.
However, there was no obvious corrosion product can be found in
ScYSZ coating. Therefore, the destabilization mechanism of ScYSZ
is different from that of YSZ. It is reported that the destabilization
of Sc2O3-rich ScYSZ, as well as CeO2–ZrO2 (CSZ) in NaVO3 molten
salt can be attributed to the mineralization effect of molten NaVO3
[23,34]. In order to investigate the destabilization mechanism of
ScYSZ in Na2SO4 + V2O5 molten salt, the corrosion tests of ScYSZ
coatings were also carried out in presence of Na2SO4 and V2O5 mol-
ten salt, respectively. Fig. 7 shows the XRD patterns of ScYSZ coat-
ing exposed to separate molten salt at 1000 °C. It can be seen that
no corrosion product can be detected on the coating surface after
corrosion in both molten salts. In addition, none of m-ZrO2 is
formed in ScYSZ coating after 100 h corrosion (Fig. 7a), indicating
that the ScYSZ has outstanding phase stability in Na2SO4 molten
salt at 1000 °C. However, in presence of V2O5 molten salt, a large
amount of t0 -ZrO2 (25.4 vol.%) has transformed to m-ZrO2 in ScYSZ
coating even after 20 h corrosion. In addition, the volume fractions

(a) (b) (c)

B

Cracks A

500 µm 50 µm 2 µm

Fig. 6. Surface morphologies of ScYSZ coating after 100 h corrosion in Na2SO4 + V2O5 molten salt: (a) and (b) Surface morphologies; (c) enlarged surface morphology.
 H.-f. Liu et al. / Corrosion Science 85 (2014) 87–93 91

(a) (b)

Fig. 7. XRD patterns of ScYSZ coating exposed to separate molten salt at 1000 °C: (a) Na2SO4 molten salt and (b) V2O5 molten salt.

Fig. 8. The mass gain as a function of time for the corrosion of ScYSZ TBC samples
with and without Na2SO4 + V2O5 salt at 1000 °C.
of m-ZrO2 can reach to 31.6% and 42.2% after 40 h and 100 h corro-
sion, respectively, which are much higher than those of ScYSZ coat-
ings in Na2SO4 + V2O5 molten salt for equal time. According to the
above results, it can be known that the V2O5 molten salt plays an
important role in the destabilization of Sc2O3-rich ScYSZ and has
the same mineralization effect as molten NaVO3. Therefore, in
presence of Na2SO4 + V2O5 molten salt, the destabilization of ScYSZ
is attributed to the synergic mineralization effect of vanadium-
containing compound (NaVO3 and V2O5).
Fig. 8 shows the mass gain as a function of time for the corro-
sion of ScYSZ TBC samples with and without Na2SO4 + V2O5 salt
at 1000 °C. The oxidation kinetic curve of the ScYSZ TBC samples
without corrosive is provided to better understand the effect of
corrosive on the degradation of ScYSZ TBC. It is shown that both
of the TBC samples exhibit a positive value in mass gain (except
of the initial stage for the samples with corrosives), resulting from
the oxidation of nickel-based alloys and the formation of thermally
grown oxide (TGO) [35–40]. Within the initial 20 h, the mass gain
of the samples with corrosive are lower than that of the samples
without corrosive, which is mainly attributed to the evaporation

(a) (b) ScYSZ

ScYSZ TGO

NiCoCrAlTaY
NiCoCrAlTaY
100 µm 30 µm

(c) (d)
ScYSZ
ScYSZ

TGO
NiCoCrAlTaY NiCoCrAlTaY

30 µm 5 µm

Fig. 9. Cross-sectional structures of the ScYSZ TBCs after 100 h oxidation: (a) and (b) With Na2SO4 + V2O5 salt; (c) and (d) without Na2SO4 + V2O5 salt.
92 H.-f. Liu et al. / Corrosion Science 85 (2014) 87–93
of SO3 (Eq. (2)). In addition, it can be seen from Fig. 8 that the oxi-
dation rate decreases gradually (within 100 h) for the TBC samples
without corrosive. However, under the same oxidation condition,
the TBC samples coated with corrosive has suffered serious oxida-
tion after 40 h (with obvious phase transformation of t0 -ZrO2), indi-
cating that the mixed molten salt has significant influence on the
degradation of ScYSZ TBC. During corrosion, the deficiency of
stabilizer resulted from the mineralization effect of vanadium-
containing compound (NaVO3 and V2O5) could induce the phase
transformation of t0 -ZrO2 in ScYSZ coating. Consequently, the
micro-cracks were formed due to the stress concentration, which
could provide channels for corrosives and oxygen diffusing inward
to the bond coating. Therefore, the mass gains of the sample coated
with corrosive are higher than that of sample without corrosive (no
phase transformation). After 70 h corrosion, the oxidation rate of
the TBC samples was accelerated significantly, which may be
attributed to the formation of the impenetrate cracks in ScYSZ
coating. Fig. 9 shows the cross-sectional structures of the ScYSZ
TBCs with and without corrosive after 100 h oxidation. It is clear
that impenetrate cracks were formed in the ScYSZ coating
(Fig. 9a), which is attributed to the creation of stress resulted from
the phase transformation of t0 -ZrO2. In addition, a TGO layer with
thickness of about 20 lm was formed between the ScYSZ coating
and bond coating (Fig. 9b), which is much thicker than that of
TBC sample without corrosive (Fig. 9c and d). Therefore, it is
evident that the degradation of the ScYSZ TBC was accelerated in
presence of Na2SO4 + V2O5 molten salt.
According to the former analysis, the degradation process of the
ScYSZ TBC in presence of Na2SO4 + V2O5 molten salt can be
deduced as follow. At the initial stage, the molten salt penetrates
into the ScYSZ coating through the cracks and open pores. And
then the ScYSZ is destabilized due to mineralization effect of vana-
dium-containing compound, resulting in the phase transformation
of t0 -ZrO2. Accompanied with the phase transformation, micro-
cracks are formed due to the concentration of stress, which could
provide more diffusion channels for corrosive. Consequently, the
corrosion rate of the ScYSZ coating increase gradually. As the same,
the oxidation of bond coating is accelerated by the continuous for-
mation of cracks in ScYSZ coating. With the creation of impenetrate
cracks, the corrosion process will be further accelerated, which is
responsible to the failure of the ScYSZ TBC.
4. Conclusion
Sc2O3–Y2O3–ZrO2 (ScYSZ) TBCs were prepared on nickel-based
superalloys by air plasma spraying. Results show that the as-
sprayed ScYSZ coating is composed of non-transformable tetrago-
nal ZrO2. In the presence of Na2SO4 + V2O5 molten salt at 1000 °C,
the ScYSZ coating exhibits superior chemical stability and
improved phase stability in comparison with YSZ coating. The
destabilization of ScYSZ is attributed to the deficiency of stabilizer
resulted from the synergic mineralization effect of vanadium-con-
taining compound (NaVO3 and V2O5). The phase transformation of
t0 -ZrO2 can induce the formation of cracks in ScYSZ coating,
resulting in the degradation of TBC system.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China under the Grant No. 51202295, the National
Basic Research Program of China (No. 2011CB605805), Creative
Research Group of National Natural Science Foundation of China
under the Grant No. 51021063.
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