A novel YSZ-YSZ/Al 2 O 3 (YSZ means 6 wt% yttria partially stabilized zirconia) double-layer thermal barrier coating was fabricated using composite sol-gel and pressure filtration microwave sintering (PFMS) technologies. In this double-layer coating, the top layer was YSZ ceramics with a thickness of about 150 lm and the bottom layer was composed of micro-sized YSZ particles packed by nano-sized a-Al 2 O 3 films and had a thickness of about 10 lm. Cyclic oxidation tests indicated that this coating possessed superior properties to resist oxidation of alloy and spallation of coating. These beneficial effects could be mainly attributed to that, the alloy substrate could be sealed completely by a-Al 2 O 3 phase and the thermal stress could be decreased by means of better thermal matching and nano/ micron structure in YSZ/Al 2 O 3 layer. Moreover, thermal insulation capability tests indicated that the thermal barrier effect was improved due to the application of YSZ/Al 2 O 3 layer. YSZ/Al 2 O 3 layer could be considered as a promising bond coat in TBCs.