Thermal barrier coating materials

Improved thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) will enable future gas turbines to operate at higher gas temperatures. Considerable effort is being invested, therefore, in identifying new materials with even better performance than the current industry standard, yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ). We review recent progress and suggest that an integrated strategy of experiment, intuitive arguments based on crystallography, and simulation may lead most rapidly to the development of new TBC materials.