I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Asst. Professor Alfred Tok, for his instructive guidance and helpful support throughout the entire work. He has always shown his complete trust in me and gave me sufficient space for my own ideas and directions. His support in my research as well as concern in my personal life has helped me achieve my goals. He has been not only a good mentor and good leader, but also a good friend all this time. I am very grateful to Dr Rene Huebner for his diligent assistance on the XRD analysis of my research as well as patient instructions and precious suggestions. Also, thanks to Associate Professor Ng Heong Wah and Dr Kang Chang Wei for their important contribution to my modeling work. Thanks to Dr Martin Karl Schreyer for his kind help on my refinement work. I am grateful to my TAC group members Associate Professor Ma Jan, Asst. Professor Gan Chee Lip and Associate Professor Subodh G. Mhaisalkar for their precious comments and suggestions on my first and second year work. In addition, I thank Mr Eric Bouchard from TEKNA Plasma Systems Inc. for his generous technical support of my spraying system. Mr Samsudin Bin Sarim in Ceramics Processing Lab, NTU has provided his very kind and competent support for my experimental work for the three years, so I would like to convey my sincere appreciation to him. Other people I am grateful to are my research group members and friends Su Liap Tat, Happy, and Du Siwei for their encouragement and discussions on my research work. I would also like to thank the financial support of the School of Materials Science & Engineering and the Graduate Scholarship from Nanyang Technological University for my research work. Finally, I want to express my deepest appreciation to my wonderful parents and my beloved wife, Sha Xuena, for their unselfish love, constant encouragement and support at all times.