Advanced thermal spray technologies for applications in energy systems

Atmospheric plasma spraying technologies have been used to produce coatings for different applications in energy systems as gas turbines and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are widely used in gas turbines to protect structural parts from the combustion gases. Although they are in use since several decades there is still a large amount of research focused on a further improvement going on. Especially increased temperature capability, improved microstructures or optimized optical properties of the coatings will be described in the present paper. Atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) technology has also been used to manufacture different coatings for solid oxide fuel cell systems. These coatings include NiO/YSZ coatings for anodes, YSZ coatings for electrolytes and different functional coatings as Cr-evaporation layer on interconnects. Recent results on these different kinds of coatings will be shown. Performance data of SOFCs on metallic porous substrates will also be given.