Fabrication and characteristics of suspension-plasma-sprayed yttrium oxide coatings

The suspension plasma spraying is a modification of conventional plasma spray techniques that has been developed to overcome the challenge of using fine particles in plasma spray processes. In this study, microstructure developments and mechanical property of yttrium oxide (Y2O3) coatings prepared by the suspension plasma spray coating technique have been investigated to determine the effect of processing parameters including plasma gun current and total gas flow. The results showed that a highly dense Y2O3 coating having low porosity of 0.2 vol% without any lamellar structures can be achieved at the optimum condition of gun current 200 A and total gas flow 220 L/min.