applicant has determined through testing that silicon comprising materials may adversely react with deposited sulfates . for example , this material may react with na 2 so 4 at temperatures such as about 1700 ° f . ( 927 ° c .) and higher , and mgso 4 / caso 4 may react at temperatures such as about 2200 ° f . ( 1204 ° c .) and higher . this reaction causes corrosion and forms a silicate glass from the silicon comprising material . deep pitting and co evolution can degrade the performance of the silicon comprising material . additionally , this may prevent ebcs from acting as optimal water recession barriers for silicon comprising substrates as silicate glass has a high recession rate . embodiments of the present invention improve upon prior coated silicon comprising materials , particularly ebc systems used upon silicon comprising material substrates . these embodiments are generally applicable to components that operate within environments of relatively high temperatures , and are thus subjected to thermal cycling , stresses , oxidation , and corrosion . examples of such components include , but are not limited to , combustor components , blades , shrouds , flaps , seals , vanes , and other components of gas turbine engines . referring to fig1 , an ebc system 10 of a first embodiment is shown . the ebc system 10 includes an ebc 12 , and a surface region 16 or substrate of a component 18 . the component 18 , or at least the surface region ( substrate ) 16 of the component 18 , is formed of a silicon comprising material ( particularly those for articles exposed to high temperatures ), such as sic / sic ceramic matrix composites ( cmc ). however , embodiments of the invention are generally applicable to other materials comprising silicon . examples of silicon comprising materials include , but are not limited to , those with a dispersion of silicon carbide , silicon carbide and / or silicon particles as a reinforcement material in a metallic or nonmetallic matrix . also included are those having a silicon carbide , silicon aluminum oxynitride , silicon nitride and / or silicon comprising matrix , and particularly composite materials that employ silicon carbide , silicon nitride and / or silicon as both the reinforcement and matrix materials ( e . g ., sic / sic ceramic matrix composites ( cmc )). silicon comprising materials further include metal silicides including , but not limited to , molybdenum and niobium silicides . thus , according to embodiments of the invention , the silicon comprising substrate 16 may be a silicon comprising ceramic material as , for example , silicon carbide , silicon nitride , silicon carbon nitride , silicon oxynitride and silicon aluminum oxynitride . in accordance with one embodiment , the silicon comprising substrate 16 comprises a silicon comprising matrix with reinforcing fibers , particles and the like and , more particularly , a fiber reinforced silicon based matrix . particularly suitable ceramic substrates are a silicon carbide coated silicon carbide fiber - reinforced silicon carbide particle and silicon matrix , a carbon fiber - reinforced silicon carbide matrix and a silicon carbide fiber - reinforced silicon nitride matrix . particularly useful silicon - metal alloys for use as substrates 16 for the article of embodiments of the invention include molybdenum - silicon alloys , niobium - silicon alloys , and other si comprising alloys having a coefficient of thermal expansion compatible with the other layer ( s ) described herein . in accordance with one embodiment , the surface region or substrate 16 of the component 18 is protected by the multilayer ebc system 10 that includes the ebc 12 for providing environmental protection to the component 18 . optionally , a top coat or conventional thermal barrier coating ( not shown ), as well as optional conventional intermediate layer ( s ) ( not shown ) may be provided on top of the ebc 12 for providing further thermal insulation to the underlying layers depending upon desired operational temperatures . the multi - layered ebc 12 of the embodiment shown in fig1 , preferably has four layers , as shown therein . these four layers may include a bond layer 22 , a first layer 24 , a second layer 26 and a third layer 28 . the bond layer 22 overlays the substrate 16 of the component 18 and preferably comprises silicon , such as at least one of silicon metal and silicon dioxide . this bond layer 22 is useful to improve oxidation resistance of the surface region 16 and enhance bonding between the first layer 24 and the surface region 16 , particularly if the surface region 16 comprises silicon carbide or silicon nitride . a suitable thickness for the bond layer 22 is about 12 . 5 to about 250 micrometers . suitable materials for bond layer 22 also include those described in the afore - referenced u . s . pat . no . 6 , 410 , 148 . for example , bond layer 22 can include a silicon metal or a sio 2 layer . the first layer 24 is located on the bond layer 22 and comprises mullite . this mullite comprising first layer 24 serves to adhere the second layer 26 to the surface region 16 , while also preventing interactions between the second layer 26 and the silicon comprising surface region 16 at elevated temperatures . the first layer 24 may also comprise bsas for less demanding applications , e . g . temperatures below about 1300 ° c . the addition of bsas to the layer 24 is also relatively compatible with the silicon comprising surface region 16 in terms of having a cte of about 5 . 27 ppm /° c ., as compared to a cte of about 4 . 9 ppm /° c . for sic / sic cmc . preferably , first layer 24 comprises mullite - barrium strontium aluminosilicate ( bsas ) in an amount of between about 40 to 80 wt . % mullite and between about 20 to 60 wt . % bsas . a suitable thickness range for the mullite comprising first layer 24 is about 25 to about 250 micrometers . the second layer 26 overlies the first mullite comprising layer 24 and typically comprises bsas and may consist essentially of bsas . this layer provides excellent environmental protection and thermal barrier properties due to its low thermal conductivity . particularly , bsas can serve as an environmental barrier to the underlying mullite comprising layer 24 , which would exhibit significant silica activity and volatilization if exposed to water vapor at high temperatures . additionally , bsas is physically compliant with a sic comprising substrate , such as that suitable for surface region 16 , and is relatively compatible with the mullite comprising layer 24 and the silicon comprising surface region 16 in terms of cte . a suitable thickness range for layer 26 is about 25 to about 500 micrometers , depending upon the particular application . the second layer 26 may alternatively or additionally comprise a rare earth silicate such as described in u . s . pat . no . 6 , 759 , 151 . for example , rare earth silicates , such as those described in u . s . pat . no . 6 , 759 , 151 may be employed as in place of the bsas described herein or admixed therewith . as a further example , rare earth silicates include , but are not limited to , re 2 o 3 , sio 2 , 2re 2 o 3 . 3sio 2 , re 2 o 3 . 2sio 2 , and combinations thereof , where re is a rare earth element selected from the group consisting of sc , dy , ho , er , tm , yb , lu , eu , gd , tb and combinations thereof . in the embodiment shown in fig1 , the ebc 12 also comprises a cerium oxide ( ceo 2 ) layer 28 ( third layer 28 ) located on top of the second layer 26 . a suitable thickness range for this layer is between about 5 to about 75 micrometers , also depending upon the particular application . alternatively , the cerium oxide may be admixed with the second layer 26 . for example , cerium oxide may be admixed in any suitable amounts such as in a 50 : 50 - weight percentage with the constituents of the second layer 26 . in alternate embodiments of the invention , the ebc 12 may comprise the second layer 26 deposited directly on the substrate comprising silicon and the third layer 28 deposited on the second layer 26 . alternatively , an admixed layer of the second layer and the third layer 28 may be deposited on the substrate comprising silicon . it should be noted that in these embodiments , bond layer 22 may also be employed and deposited directly on the substrate comprising silicon with the additional layers deposited on the bond layer 22 . thus , in accordance with embodiments of the invention , a single layer , ebc of bsas and ceo 2 admixed therewith , as described above , may be used to provide environmental protection to the underlying silicon comprising material . this embodiment is particularly useful for operating temperatures below about 3000 ° f . ( 1371 ° c . ), alternatively , a ceo 2 layer , as described above , may be deposited on top of the bsas layer . the layers 22 , 24 , 26 and 28 can be individually deposited by air and vacuum plasma spraying ( aps and vps , respectively ), though it is foreseeable that deposition could be performed by other techniques , such as chemical vapor deposition ( cvd ) and high velocity oxy fuel ( hvof ). a heat treatment may also be performed after deposition of the individual layers to relieve stresses created during cooling from elevated deposition temperatures . accordingly , applicant has advantageously determined that deposition of this high melting point acidic compound , ceo 2 , will result in dissolution into the basic corrosion melt and increase the eutectic temperature and / or decrease the basicity of the solution . this will advantageously slow and / or stop the silicate glass formation on the surface of the silicon comprising material by raising the melting point or decreasing the basicity of the silicate glass of the corrodant mix . while various embodiments are described herein , it will be appreciated from the specification that various combinations of elements , variations and improvements therein may be made by those skilled in the art , and are within the scope of the invention .