The thermal barrier coating (TBC) system is one of the most complex high temperature protective coatings that act as a physical barrier to high temperature gases and reduce the surface temperature of the substrate, improving the durability and efficiency of advanced gas turbine engine hot section components. It has excellent performance and is widely used. The TBC system consists of two parts:the metal bonding coating and the top ceramic coating. The metal bonding coating can protect the alloy substrate from high temperature oxidation and corrosion, and enhance the bonding force between the substrate and the ceramic coating. The ceramic coating is the most important TBC. It plays an important role in high temperature protection. The role of the ceramic coating is mainly reflected in the two aspects:blocking the damage to the substrate caused by high temperature and improving the service life of the substrate material. To a certain extent, it is even directly related to the thrust-weight ratio and thermal efficiency of the engine. Once the ceramic insulating coating is partially or completely peeled off, the base material will be directly exposed to harsh environments, which will damage the base material and reduce its service life. In order to better protect high-temperature components, improve their use efficiency, and prolong their service life, it is very important to explore materials that are more suitable for application in thermal barrier coatings and to prepare coatings with better performance. In decades of research, zirconia material has been found to be one of the most suitable materials for thermal barrier coatings. Zirconia is an oxide ceramic material with a special crystal structure. It has mechanical properties very similar to metals, and has a thermal expansion coefficient that is very similar to nickel-based and cobalt-based. With excellent properties such as thermal stability and corrosion resistance, zirconia-based ceramic materials are widely used in thermal barrier coatings. Studies have shown that the performance of thermal barrier coatings is closely related to the microstructure of the top ceramic layer, which in turn is influenced by its ceramic powder morphology. In this paper, the preparation processes of nano-zirconia powder and hollow spherical zirconia powder were described respectively, and the factors affecting the morphology, structure and particle size of zirconia products by different processes were analyzed. The performance of traditional microstructure coatings was compared. When analyzing the performance of coatings prepared from different zirconia powders, in addition to process parameters, more consideration was given to the effect of initial zirconia powder on coating performance. It is hoped that in future research, the existing pulverizing process can be optimized or a better pulverizing process can be explored, and new powders with better performance can be developed, in order to fundamentally improve the performance of thermal barrier coatings to meet the needs of aviation and meet the future use requirements of high-precision fields such as aerospace and military energy. Finally, this paper put forward its own views on the different existing pulverizing processes to obtain powders with different morphological structures and prospected the future development direction of coatings prepared from different powders.