Four Coating schemes and two substrate materials. i.e, 2Crl3 and 1Cr18Ni9Ti, are designed to evaluate the charaecteristics of the ceramic/metal gradient thermal barrier coating. For all the coating schemes, ZrO2 is used as ceramic and NiCr/Al as bond metal. The gradient coating is successfully prepared by plasma spray with single torch and single feeder. Tje coating and thermal residual stress, The coating micro-structure is observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Diffractive peaks for the gradient coating are got at different zone by X-ray spectroscopy (XRS). In the thermal shock test, the microstructure of the specimens is obscrved before and after the experiment, and cracks are found in the coatin post the experimetn. The thermal shock experiment shows that the thermal shock resistance property of the gradient coating is better than that of the non-gradient coating. The measurments of thermal residual stresses in different coating schemes are carried out by hole-drilling method. the results show that compressional stress resents on 1Cr18Ni9Ti substrate and tensile stress presents on 2Crl3 substrate.