The roles of surface roughness on icephobicity including ice adhesion strength have been long debated in icephobicity studies. However, the direct/systematic influence of surface roughness on ice adhesion strength while keeping other surface characteristics such as surface wettability and interfacial cavitation unchanged are seldom reported. In this paper, systematic reduction of ice adhesion strength with the decrease in surface roughness regardless of the surface wettability was demonstrated across all the studied material types, i.e. metallic surfaces and polymeric coatings with different surface wettability. In-situ icing observation studies indicated that the ice did not anchor on smooth metallic surfaces and polymeric coatings but anchored on rough surfaces including superhydrophobic coatings. Effect of surface wettability was argued against the ice adhesion strength based on our results and similar ice adhesion strength was found on materials having different wettability (i.e. hydrophilic and hydrophobic coatings, and surfaces having different contact angle hysteresis). On the contrary, the introduction of low surface energy chemicals (via deposition and/or functionalization) on the surface having similar surface roughness showed a direct reduction of ice adhesion strength. These results indicated the surface roughness is vital in achieving icephobic performance, however, the ultra-low ice adhesion strength could be achieved by the synergetic effect of low surface roughness and low interfacial cavitation (in line with the interfacial correlation factor).

Formation and accretion of ice on the leading edge surface of aircrafts wings may lead to disasters. The current de-icing system for aircraft will build up weight, increase energy consumption and add complexity to the aircraft systems. Development of icephobic coatings is a potential solution to prevent ice formation and/or reduce accretion on the critical surface of aircraft. Icephobic coatings based on poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) with modification by fluorosilane and incorporation of silica nanoparticles have been fabricated. The hydrophobicity of the coatings has been measured in normal conditions with atmospheric pressure and room temperature, showing improvement of hydrophobicity by the fluorination of PDMS and incorporation of silica nanoparticles. The water droplet icing behaviour shows better anti-icing performance for fluorinated PDMS (F-PDMS)/silica coatings with a rough surface. The ice adhesion strength test results show that F-PDMS coatings without silica nanoparticles have lower ice adhesion strength implying better de-icing performance. The wettability of the coatings was also measured at reduced pressure and temperature, to study the mechanism of higher ice adhesion strength of F-PDMS/silica coatings comparing with F-PDMS based coatings. For the design and fabrication of icephobic coatings, compromise on the roughness induced hydrophobicity may become a critical requirement to avoid mechanical interlock between the ice and the rough surface.

Icephobic surfaces have attracted increasing attention due to their wide ranging application areas from wind and solar energy systems to aviation. Slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) are being explored for passive ice protection due to their lower ice adhesion strength.In this study, we present a cost-effective and scalable electrospinning technique to produce freestanding nanofibrous polymeric surfaces for the fabrication of transparent icephobic SLIPS. The diameter of the electrospun fibres produced varied from 200 to 400 nm and the membranes had a theoretical porosity of 71.6 ±4.1%. Furthermore, three different lubricants polychlorotrifluoroethylene oil (PcTFE), silicone oil and liquid paraffin, were used and it was observed that when silicone oil and PcTFE were used as lubricants for SLIPS, they provided high optical transparency (>90%) in the visible light spectrum compared to PVDF-co-HFP itself. All SLIPS were subjected to centrifugal ice adhesion testing which revealed their ice adhesion strengths lower than 1 KPa with significant delay in droplet icing compared to aluminium reference, from 5 up to 41 sec. The results indicated that enhanced icephobic properties of electrospun membranes have been clearly demonstrated.

Icephobicity is intrinsically affected by rough asperities and the surface voids provide anchoring points for the ice. The anchor of ice is likely to form on the surface under high humidity conditions. In-situ water condensation and icing observation were conducted to understand water condensation and ice retracting patterns in controlled humidity, pressure and temperature conditions. It was observed that water microcondensation and icing occurred on rougher surfaces and the water droplets condensed along the surface cracks of the superhydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based nanocomposite coatings. Further analysis revealed that ice anchoring was present on both aluminum and superhydrophobic coating surface, but it was more severe and intensified on the as-received aluminum substrates. No water condensation or subsequent icing was found on smooth PDMS hydrophobic surfaces due to the incapacity of the smooth surfaces to anchor water drops. It is the first time to validate ice anchoring over retracting ice on different wettability surfaces from insitu icing observation. Ice adhesion strengths were also measured on the studied 2 surfaces and the results indicated a strong linkage between centrifugal shearing of ice and anchoring mechanism due to surface rough voids, and there was no clear relevancy between ice adhesion strength and the surface wettability or hydrophobicity.

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