Influence of yttrium on the interface valence electron density of thermal barrier coatings

Most of the bonding layers of thermal barrier coatings contain some yttrium to improve the physical consistency of the substrate and the ceramics layer. But the reason of the improvement and the proper yttrium content are not clear. In this paper, the valence electron densities ρh k l and image of the two sides and their difference Δρmin of the bonding layer/ceramic layer interface of thermal barrier coatings are calculated with the empirical electron theory in solids and molecules at various bonding layer yttrium content. The results show the following. The addition of yttrium has beneficial effect on the decrease of the interface stress because it decreases the Δρmin. The addition of yttrium can also increase the valence electron density ρh k l or image of the interface and so increase the interface cohesion force. The most effective yttrium content is at 0.4 wt% or so. The deductions accord with the actual coating, so the method can be applied to design the composition of the bonding layer of thermal barrier coatings. Furthermore, the calculation and the analysis methods of the interface valence electron densities can also be extended to other crystal coatings or composites with special orientation relationship, no matter the interface is a alloy/alloy one, a ceramics/alloy one or a ceramics/ceramics one.