A Short Review of Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) for Thermal Barrier Coatings: Recent Progress

According to some reports, yttria-stabilized zirconia has remained one of the most applied TBC materials due to its excellent thermal insulation properties and very high melting point, besides high resistance to thermal shock. In this paper, an overview of the most recent developments on YSZ-based TBCs is given, basically on the improvement of their thermal stability, sintering resistance, and phase stability. It further reviews very recent advances in fabrication techniques and deposition techniques and nanostructuring, which have been extremely useful in improving the performance and durability of YSZ coatings. Furthermore, in the review, the incorporation of new, novel dopants or alternative ceramic materials is given for further optimization of properties for TBCs. This paper finally concludes by giving the current challenges and future directions of YSZ-based TBC development, with the note that more R&D efforts need to be directed towards it, more so in view of the growing demands in the high-temperature applications domain for gas turbines and aero engines.