Thermal conductivities of certain pyrochlore oxides can be reduced by doping.

Doped pyrochlore oxides of a type described below are under consideration as alternative materials for high temperature thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). In comparison with partially yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ), which is the state of the art TBC material now in commercial use, these doped pyrochlore oxides exhibit lower thermal conductivities, which could be exploited to obtain the following advantages: