Plasma spray–physical vapor deposition toward advanced thermal barrier coatings: a review

Plasma spray–physical vapor deposition (PS–PVD) is a unique technology that enables highly tailorable functional films and coatings with various rare metal elements to be processed. This technology bridges the gap between conventional thermal spray and vapor deposition and provides a variety of coating microstructures composed of vapor, liquid, and solid deposition units. The PS–PVD technique serves a broad range of applications in the fields of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs), environmental barrier coatings (EBCs), oxygen permeable films, and electrode films. It also represents the development direction of high-performance TBC/EBC preparation technologies. With the PS–PVD technique, the composition of the deposition unit determines the microstructure of the coating and its performance. When coating materials are injected into a nozzle and transported into the plasma jet, the deposition unit generated by a coating material is affected by the plasma jet characteristics. However, there is no direct in situ measurement method of material transfer and deposition processes in the PS–PVD plasma jet, because of the extreme conditions of PS–PVD such as a low operating pressure of ~ 100 Pa, temperatures of thousands of degrees, and a thin and high-velocity jet. Despite the difficulties, the transport and transformation behaviors of the deposition units were also researched by optical emission spectroscopy, observation of the coating microstructure and other methods. This paper reviews the progress of PS–PVD technologies considering the preparation of advanced thermal barrier coatings from the perspective of the transport and transformation behaviors of the deposition units. The development prospects of new high-performance TBCs using the PS–PVD technique are also discussed. Graphic abstract