Development of yttrium Titanate/Nickel nanocomposites with self crack-healing ability and potential application as thermal barrier coating material

Abstract

Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are necessary to protect nickel-based alloy blades of gas turbine against oxidation and thermal fatigue in high-temperature operating conditions. Ceramic materials, which are very good natural thermal insulator, attract the most interests from engineers and scientists. However, the brittleness of ceramics is a major obstacle for utilizing them as the TBCs, which are also required very good damage tolerance against physical impacts. The cracks appear on the blade surfaces during its operation can lead to the severe failure. In this research, a composite of Y2Ti2O7 and Ni was developed as a self-crack healing material to overcome this problem. The crack-healing behavior is investigated by using Vickers indenter to create cracks on the composite surface intentionally, followed by annealing in an oxidizing environment. It is found that the main crack-healing mechanism is the filling of NiO, which was formed from the oxidation of the Ni fillers, into the cracks. Complete heal of cracks is achieved with 10 vol% Ni filler, which is confirmed by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Thermal conductivity and Weibull distribution for the strength of the composite were also investigated to find the appropriate volume fraction of Ni nanoparticles in this self-healing material. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.MT-MN2019006]