Transmission electron microscopy observation of microstructure of plasma-sprayed nanostructured zirconia coating

Nanostructured zirconia coatings deposited by plasma spraying technique were observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was found that the as-sprayed nanostructured zirconia coating had bimodal microstructures in terms of grain size distribution in the direction parallel to substrate surface. One was in the range 30-120 nm, which was the dominative structure of the coating, and the other was about 150-400 nm. The cross-section micrograph of the plasma sprayed nanostructured zirconia coating revealed that the coating still exhibited lamellar structure with columnar grains extending through its thickness. In conjunction with partially molten zirconia grains, amorphous regions were found. Domain structure and superlattice structure were observed in the plasma-sprayed nanostructured zirconia coating. The formations of the domain and superlattice structures are discussed in this paper.