Evaluating steam oxidation kinetics of environmental barrier coatings

• Published in: Journal of the American Ceramic Society Vol. 105; no. 1; pp. 590 - 605
• Main Authors: Kane, Kenneth, Garcia, Eugenio, Stack, Padraig, Lance, Michael, Parker, Cory, Sampath, Sanjay, Pint, Bruce A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Columbus Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.01.2022
• Subjects: Adhesion; Air plasma; Chemical vapor deposition; Coatings; environmental barrier coatings (EBC); Evaluation; Gas turbines; Kinetics; Oxidation; oxidation resistance; Pressure; Reaction kinetics; Roughening; Silicon carbide; Silicon dioxide; Silicon substrates; Vapor deposition
• ISSN: 0002-7820; 1551-2916
• DOI: 10.1111/jace.18093

Environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) are a commercially proven means of protecting SiC‐based materials in gas turbine environments. However, there are little specific data in the literature on the impact of coatings like Yb2Si2O7 on preventing accelerated SiO2 growth in the presence of H2O. Quantification of reduced rates are necessary for evaluating and comparing EBC effectiveness and incorporation of silica growth rates into future EBC lifetime models. In this study, baseline kinetics of silica formation on bare Si and chemically vapor deposited (CVD) SiC in the 1250–1425℃ range were obtained via 100 h isothermal exposures in dry air and steam environments utilizing a SiC reaction tube to mitigate specimen volatility. An Arrhenius plot of the resulting rates was constructed, representing baseline minimum and maximum rates for Si and SiC oxidation at ambient pressure. Various EBC systems on CVD SiC substrates including air plasma sprayed (APS) EBCs with and without a Si bond coating and with surface roughening to enhance Yb2Si2O7 adhesion were subjected to 1‐h furnace cycle testing in air with 90vol%H2O at 1250–1350℃ for up to 500 cycles. After exposure, silica formation rates were measured and compared to the baseline rates to assess EBC effectiveness, where EBC effectiveness is gauged as the propensity to reduce underlying rates of silica formation. With a Si bond coating, a ~180 µm Yb2Si2O7 (YbDS) top coating reduced rates over the entire 1250°‐1350℃ range. Without a Si bond coating, ~60 µm (YbDS) coatings deposited directly onto CVD SiC exhibited poor adhesion, and had to be deposited onto substrates with enhanced roughness at 1350℃. While exhibiting good adhesion at 1350℃, overall the single layer YbDS coating exhibited a decreasing effectiveness from 1250° to 1350℃.