Structural Phase State and Thermal Cyclic Stability of the Thermal Barrier Zr–Si–O Coatings Deposited on a Copper Substrate by the Microplasma Method

Abstract: In this work, preparation of thermal barrier coatings based on zirconium oxide is shown. The phased treatment of the copper substrate is proposed in order to obtain a layered thermal barrier oxide coating on it. The sample surface is nanostructured, titanium is deposited layer-by-layer (by the vacuum-arc method) and then zirconium (by the magnetron method), and then zirconium is converted into zirconium dioxide by the microplasma method. The formed oxide-ceramic coatings contain elements from a solution, according to the results of elemental analysis, and zirconium dioxide in tetragonal and monoclinic modifications, according to the results of X-ray diffraction. A study of thermal cyclic stability was carried out. It is revealed that an increase in the time of microplasma treatment to a certain value has a positive effect on the thermal cyclic properties of the obtained layer material and it is able to sustain more than 90 cycles without serious damage to the surface layer.