The most important role of thermal barrier coatings is to reduce the temperature of the substrate in high temperature applications. Nano particle zirconia might be a suitable choice for improving the efficiency of thermal barrier coatings. Nanostructured coatings have lower thermal conduction, higher thermal expansion and lower dimensional variations at higher temperatures in comparison with the microstructured coatings. Electrophoretic deposition has been preferred for thermal barrier coatings due to its simplicity, controllability and low cost. In the present study, three different suspensions of ZrO 2 -8 wtY 2 O 3 (40 nm) made with ethanol, acetone and acetyl acetone were used. Electrophoretic deposition was conducted at a fixed voltage of 60 V for 120 s on aluminized Inconel 738-LC, and then heat treated at 1100 °C for 4 h in air atmosphere. The coating morphology and elemental distribution were studied using scanning electron microscopy. It was observed that suspension media have an important effect on the quality of the final product. Acetyl acetone showed better dispersion of particles than the other two media. Consequently, deposition from acetyl acetone resulted in uniform and crack-free layers while those from ethanol and acetone were completely non-uniform due to agglomeration and low viscosity, respectively. ©2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.