Abstract

This paper presents the experimental techniques of transmission electron microscopy of plasma-spray powderalloy coatings. It includes the specimen preparation techniques for powder materials and for plasma spray powdercoatings from the nickel-chromium-based alloy and synthetic hydroxyapatite (HA) and the analysis of the results.The study of the structure-phase compositions of HA powders and HA and Ni-Cr-based plasma spray coatingshas been carried out by using transmission electron microscopy on JEM-2100 (JEOL), and by X-ray diffraction(XRD) on X’Pert PRO diffractometer (PANalytical, the Netherlands). It has been established that the coatingshave the desired structure-phase composition as a result of the selection of specific modes of plasma spraying andadditional plasma treatment. The advantages and challenges of application of TEM method for analyzing thestructure of thick (up to300μm) powder coatings deposited by plasma spraying methods onto metal substratesare investigated.