Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) with high working temperatures and long service life are indispensable for the hot-end components of gas turbines and aircraft engines. This work designs and verifies that tantalate high-entropy ceramic (HEC) coatings are excellent TBCs with working temperatures reaching 1500 °C. We reveal the structural evolution and failure mechanisms of tantalate HEC coatings synthesized via air plasma spraying (APS). After they are subjected to thermal shock at 1500 °C for 614 cycles, thermal fatigue at 1150 °C for 12,830 cycles, and annealing at 1100 °C for 384 h. The thermal stress caused by the temperature gradient, differences in thermal expansion coefficients (TECs), and mechanical properties between ceramic coatings and bond coat (BC) lead to the spalling of coatings during thermal shock, while the effects of BC oxidation are limited. In thermal fatigue, the accumulative thermal stress between BC and thermally grown oxides (TGO) is higher than the fracture resistance when the h/R ratio is higher than 0.32 (h and R are the TGO thickness and undulation radius, respectively), which mainly leads to the spalling of coatings. Additionally, the effects of coating sintering and stiffness are also considered, which lead to surficial spalling during the high-temperature service. Two different failure mechanisms are proposed based on their microstructural evolution, and synthesized tantalate HEC coatings can be used at temperatures up to 1500 °C, which further promotes the design and application of high-performance TBCs.

Thermal protective materials that remain stable above 3000 °C are crucial for hypersonic vehicles and nuclear fusion systems, yet reported nonradioactive oxides melt below this threshold. Zhou et al. demonstrated a cation engineering strategy that couples crystallographic symmetry, the coordination number, the valence electron concentration (VEC), the cation radius, and metal‒oxygen bonding to increase the melting temperature of fluorite-type oxides. Guided by the above multidimensional design framework, Ta-doped HfO₂ was experimentally validated to have a melting point surpassing 3000 °C, which was confirmed as the first nonradioactive oxide with a melting point above 3000 °C. This perspective distills the underlying symmetry–VEC–bonding design principles and discusses how they can guide the discovery and engineering integration of ultrahigh-temperature oxide ceramics.

Tantalum pentoxide and yttrium oxide were used as base materials. By adding alkali metal sintering agent Li₂CO₃, the doped tantalate ceramic samples were prepared by high temperature solid-phase sintering. The effects of alkali metal sintering agent Li₂CO₃ on the physical and chemical properties of rare earth yttrium tantalate coating were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), laser pulse method (LFA), thermal-mechanical analyzer (TMA) and UV-visive-near-infrared spectrophotometer. The results show that under the sintering system at 1530℃, the ceramic is compact, resulting in Li₃TaO₄ ceramic. With more Li₂CO₃ inclusion, the higher Li₃TaO₄ of the second phase is generated. With a stable thermal expansion coefficient, the range of 8.2-8.6×10^-6K^-1(900℃); The Young's modulus and hardness of the samples decreased with the increase of the added sintering aid dose. When 6% alkali metal sintering agent Li₂O₃ is mixed into the ceramic, the transmittance rate of YTaO₄ ceramic can be stable at more than 80%, which shows that YTaO₄ ceramic has superior potential of optical ceramics.

Thermal/environmental barrier coatings (T/EBCs) are used to protect hot-section superalloys and/or ceramic matrix composite components from hot corrosion and oxidation; however, the majority of T/EBCs exhibit extremely high thermal and ionic conductivities. Here, we obtain a novel rare-earth tantalate with excellent oxygen and thermal insulation via a high-entropy strategy. The high-entropy component (8RE_1/8)TaO₄ (RE = rare earth), which is designed by large size disorder and mass disorder, has been reassembled into a stabilized monoclinic structure. (8RE_1/8)TaO₄ had 30.0%–31.1% and 59.2%–67.5% lower intrinsic thermal conductivity than single-RE RETaO₄ and 8(Y₂O₃–ZrO₂) 8YSZ at 1200 °C, respectively, and exhibited lower intrinsic thermal conductivity across the entire temperature range of 100–1200 °C. This is the result of strong scattering by the phonon–phonon, grain boundary, domain boundary, dislocation, and vacancy defects. The ionic conductivity of (8RE_1/8)TaO₄ is 3712–29,667 times lower than that of 8YSZ at 900 °C, benefiting from the strong Ta–O bonding strength, low concentration of mobile oxygen vacancies and severe lattice distortions that impede carrier transport. Moreover, (8RE_1/8)TaO₄ had superior high-temperature stability and excellent mechanical properties. Analysis of above results demonstrates that (8RE_1/8)TaO₄ is a promising candidate for T/EBCs.

Thermal barrier coating (TBC) materials can improve energy conversion efficiency and reduce fossil fuel use. Herein, novel rare earth tantalates RETaO₄, as promising candidates for TBCs, were reassembled into multi-component solid solutions with a monoclinic structure to further depress thermal conductivity via an entropy strategy. The formation mechanisms of oxygen vacancy defects, dislocations, and ferroelastic domains associated with the thermal conductivity are demonstrated by aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. Compared to single-RE RETaO₄ and 8YSZ, the intrinsic thermal conductivity of (5RE_1/5)TaO₄ was decreased by 35%–47% and 57%–69% at 1200 ℃, respectively, which is likely attributed to multi-scale phonon scattering from Umklapp phonon–phonon, point defects, domain structures, and dislocations. ${\overline{r}}_{\text{RE}}^{3+}/r_{\text{Ta}}^{5+}$ and low-temperature thermal conductivity are negatively correlated, as are the ratio of elastic modulus to thermal conductivity (E/κ) and high-temperature thermal conductivity. Meanwhile, the high defects’ concentration and lattice distortion in high-entropy ceramics enhance the scattering of transverse-wave phonons and reduce the transverse-wave sound velocity, leading to a decrease in the thermal conductivity and Young’s modulus. In addition, 5HEC-1 has ultra-low thermal conductivity, moderate thermal expansion coefficients, and high hardness among three five-component high-entropy samples. Thus, 5HEC-1 with superior thermal barrier and mechanical properties can be used as promising thermal insulating materials.

Effective manipulations of thermal expansion and conductivity are significant for improving operational performances of protective coatings, thermoelectric, and radiators. This work uncovers determinant mechanisms of the thermal expansion and conductivity of symbiotic ScTaO₄/SmTaO₄ composites as thermal/environmental barrier coatings (T/EBCs), and we consider the effects of interface stress and thermal resistance. The weak bonding and interface stress among composite grains manipulate coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) stretching from 6.4×10⁻⁶ to 10.7×10⁻⁶ K⁻¹ at 1300 ℃, which gets close to that of substrates in T/EBC systems. The multiscale effects, including phonon scattering at the interface, mitigation of the phonon speed (v_p), and lattice point defects, synergistically depress phonon thermal transports, and we estimate the proportions of different parts. The interface thermal resistance (R) reduces the thermal conductivity (k) by depressing phonon speed and scattering phonons because of different acoustic properties and weak bonding between symbiotic ScTaO₄ and SmTaO₄ ceramics in the composites. This study proves that CTE of tantalates can be artificially regulated to match those of different substrates to expand their applications, and the uncovered multiscale effects can be used to manipulate thermal transports of various materials.

A₃BO₇-type (A = rare earth (RE), B = Nb or Ta) oxides have been studied as protective coating materials because of their low thermal conductivity; however, their hardness, toughness, and stiffness are insufficient, particularly for members with webeirte-type structures. In this work, we have synthesized two high-entropy oxides (HEOs) of weberite-type RE niobates/tantalates (RE₃Nb/TaO₇), i.e., (Nd_1/7Sm_1/7Eu_1/7Gd_1/7Dy_1/7Ho_1/7Er_1/7)₃NbO₇ (7HEOs-Nb) and (Nd_1/7Sm_1/7Eu_1/7Gd_1/7Dy_1/7Ho_1/7Er_1/7)₃(Nb_1/2Ta_1/2)O₇ (7HEOs-NbTa), to overcome the mechanical deficiencies. The short- and long-range ordered arrangements of RE cations in the A-site and Nb/Ta cations in the B-site were identified by the X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS), and transmission electron microscopy. The enhancements in hardness (H = 9.4 GPa) and fracture toughness (K_IC = 2.0 MPa·m^1/2) were realized by grain refinement, solid solution strengthening, and high stiffness (K). The exceptional phase stability at 25−1500 ℃, amorphous thermal conductivity (k = 1.5−1.7 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹ at 25−900 ℃), and high thermal expansion coefficients (TEC > 11.0×10⁻⁶ K⁻¹ at 1500 ℃) further supported their potential application as protective coating materials.

In this paper, (Gd_1−xY_x)TaO₄ ceramics have been fabricated by solid-phase synthesis reaction. Each sample was found to crystallize in a monoclinic phase by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The properties of (Gd_1−xY_x)TaO₄ were optimized by adjusting the ratio of Gd/Y. (Gd_1−xY_x)TaO₄ had a low high-temperature thermal conductivity (1.37–2.05 W∙m⁻¹∙K⁻¹), which was regulated by lattice imperfections. The phase transition temperature of the (Gd_1−xY_x)TaO₄ ceramics was higher than 1500 ℃. Moreover, the linear thermal expansion coefficients (TECs) were 10.5×10⁻⁶ K⁻¹ (1200 ℃), which was not inferior to yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) (11×10⁻⁶ K⁻¹, 1200 ℃). (Gd_1−xY_x)TaO₄ had anisotropic thermal expansion. Therefore, controlling preferred orientation could minimize the TEC mismatch when (Gd_1−xY_x)TaO₄ coatings were deposited on different substrates as thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). Based on their excellent properties, it is believed that the (Gd_1−xY_x)TaO₄ ceramics will become the next generation of high-temperature thermal protective coatings.