Phase transformation inhibition and improved thermo-mechanical properties of rare earth niobates for thermal barrier coatings

Abstract

Rare earth niobate Re3NbO7 (Re=Rare earth element) possesses ultra-low thermal conductivity for application as thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). However, Re3NbO7 with large rare earth ion radius (ReLa, Nd, Sm) exhibits both low temperature phase transition and poor facture toughness which is detrimental to the durability of the coatings. In this work, an effective method was proposed to solve those problems by doping. Considering the low-temperature phase transition at about 340K, La3NbO7 is selected as representative material. In order to suppress phase transition, Y3+ with relatively smaller ionic radius is used as a doped ion, and (La1-xYx)3NbO7 (x = 0.0,0.1,0.3,0.5) were prepared and investigated. It is shown that, low temperature phase transition of La3NbO7 is effectively suppressed due to Y3+ doped. Facture toughness is increased significantly from 0.5 to 2.3 MPa m1/2 with the increase of doping concentration. Furthermore, the Vickers hardness is also improved by doping. Considering the phase stability and ultra-low thermal conductivity, (La1-xYx)3NbO7 solid solution (x = 0.5) maybe promising candidates for high temperature thermal insulation materials such as TBCs, thermoelectric materials, etc.