International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology 10(1):72-78 (2013) DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-7402.2011.02748.x Deposition of Silicon Carbide and Nitride Based Coatings by Atmospheric Plasma Spraying Zoltán Károly a,* , Cecília Bartha a , Ilona Mohai a , Csaba Balázsi b , István E. Sajó a , János Szépvölgyi a, c a Institute of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Chemical Research Center, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, 1025 Hungary b Research Institute for Technical Physics and Materials Science, Budapest, 1525 Hungary c Research Institute of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Pannónia, Veszprém, Hungary, Abstract In this work atmospheric plasma spraying of SiC and Si 3 N 4 was investigated. Plasma spraying of these ceramics raises several problems since they would tend to decompose instead of melting at elevated temperatures during the process. To circumvent this problem the non-oxide ceramics were deposited as a composite powder mixed with non-oxide ceramic particles resulting in a ceramic/ceramic composite structure. Our findings were that using such a composite feedstock powder both oxidation and decomposition of the non-oxide particles could be avoided. A vitrified phase was also developed in the coating. 1. Introduction Silicon carbide (SiC) and silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ) are advanced engineering materials each having a number of attractive properties such as high strength, hardness, wear- and corrosion resistance The authors kindly acknowledge the financial support of the National Office for Research and Technology (NKTH, Project No.: OMFB-00252/2007)