Effect of microstructure and microhardness on the wear resistance of zirconia-alumina, zirconia-yttria and zirconia-ceria coatings manufactured by atmospheric plasma spraying

The effect of the structure and microhardness on the wear resistance of zirconia-alumina (ATZ), zirconia-yttria (YSZ) and zirconia-ceria (CSZ) coatings manufactured by atmospheric plasma spraying was studied. The microstructure and the fracture on the cross section of the coatings were analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscopy, the phases were identified using X-Ray Diffraction, the microhardness was measured by Vickers indentation and the wear resistance was evaluated by ball on disc test. The results showed that zirconia-alumina coating exhibits the best performance in the wear test. This behavior is closely related to their microstructure and higher microhardness, despite of its significant quantity of the monoclinic zirconia phase, which has lower mechanical properties than tetragonal zirconia phase. Tetragonal zirconia phase was predominant in the zirconia-yttria and zirconia-ceria coatings and despite this behavior; they did not have a good performance in the wear tests. This low wear resistance was mainly influenced by the columnar structure within their lamellae, which caused a greater detachment of particles in the contact surface during the ball-disc tests, increasing its wear. (C) 2015 Sociedad Espanola de Ceramica y Vidrio. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).