Ionoluminscence of partially-stabilized zirconia for thermal barrier coatings

Ionoluminescence is explored as an alternative technique to study the high temperature phase stability of zirconia-based oxides. The evolution of an initially metastable single tetragonal phase towards de-stabilization is investigated for three single-doped zirconia compositions with Y, Yb and Gd. The differences in de-stabilization paths are identified using X-ray diffraction and ionoluminescence; elemental analysis is also performed using particle-induced X-ray emission. X-ray diffraction studies reveal a different scenario for each of the compositions selected; the differences are strongly influenced by the thermodynamic driving forces associated to the fluorite-to-tetragonal displacive transformation. Ionoluminescence studies indicate a significant increment on the signal intensity for de-stabilized samples, relative to previous annealing stages. There are also more subtle differences in the luminescent response from the samples at intermediate annealing stages also related to phase changes. This study provides a basis to characterize phase evolution in single-doped zirconia compositions for thermal insulation applications using luminescence. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.