Laser Surface Modification of Air Plasma-Sprayed Al2O3/YSZ Multilayer Thermal Barrier Coating to Improve Hot Corrosion Resistance in V2O5–Na2SO4 Salts

A bond coating of NiCrAlY followed by top coating of Al2O3/YSZ has been applied on an Inconel-718 using an air plasma spraying method, and radiation of a Nd-YAG laser was used to glaze the coated samples. The hot corrosion response of the coatings was measured in 55%V2O5 + 45% Na2SO4 at a temperature of 1000 °C for 3 and 30 h. Leaching of Y2O3 from YSZ, due to the reaction of V2O5 and Na2SO4, was found to be the major reason for the corrosion. Eventually, this led to the formation of YVO4 and tetragonal (t) zirconia to monoclinic (m)-ZrO2 phase transformation. In parallel, the volume fraction of m-ZrO2 in the sprayed coating decreased from 62 to 46%. Reduction of the m-ZrO2 in the glazed coating indicated an improvement of hot corrosion resistance. The results demonstrate that the existence of a dense Al2O3 layer on the upper surface of the sprayed coating led to increased resistance against corrosion. In addition, the laser operation reduced the surface roughness leading to the reduction of the reactive specific surface and the effective contact area between the corrosive materials and the glazed layer.