A Superhydrophobic/Electrothermal/Photothermal Synergistically Anti-icing Strategy with Excellent Self-healable and Anti-abrasion Property

Abstract

Unexpected ice accumulation tends to cause many problems or even disasters in our daily life. Based on the superior electrothermal and photothermal function of the carbon nanotubes, we introduced a superhydrophobic/electrothermal/photothermal synergistically anti-icing strategy. When a voltage of 15 V was applied to the superhydrophobic sample, the surface could rapidly melt the ice layer (~ 3 mm thickness) within 530 s at the environmental temperature of − 25 °C. When the near-infrared light (808 nm) irradiates on the superhydrophobic sample, the ice could be rapidly removed after 460 s. It was found that the superhydrophobicity helps the melted water to roll off immediately, and then solves the re-freeze problem the traditional surfaces facing. Moreover, the ice can be completely melted with 120 s when the superhydrophobic/electrothermal/photothermal synergistically anti-icing strategy was utilized. To improve the mechanical robustness for practical application, both nanoscale carbon nanotubes and microscale carbon powders were utilized to construct hierarchical structure. Then these dual-scale fillers were sprinkled onto the semi-cured elastomer substrate to prepare partially embedded structure. Both hierarchical structure and partially embedded structure were obtained after completely curing the substrate, which imparts excellent abrasion resistance (12.50 kPa, 16.00 m) to the prepared sample. Moreover, self-healable poly(urea–urethane) elastomer was introduced as the substrate. Thus, the cutted superhydrophobic sample can be mended by simply contacting at room temperature.

Smart low interfacial toughness coatings for on-demand de-icing without melting

“…They showed significant energy savings (90%) when de-icing the whole turbine blade by only coating the leading edge with their SHS coating and electrical heaters. Many other works have demonstrated hybrid ice mitigation combining a SHS and active heating [40][41][42][43] . Hybrid de-icing methods can also employ lubricant infusion.…”

Recent Advances on the Abrasion Resistance Enhancements and Applications of Superhydrophobic Materials

“…[92][93][94] The functional material is deposited on the self-healing polymeric membrane, and the healing function of the underlying layer can be transferred to the top layer, repairing the damage as well as restoring function. [95][96][97] Most scholars added substances with shape memory to construct self-healing superhydrophobic surface. Even if the surface is worn, it can be recovered to its original state by stimulation with an external medium.…”

“…The self‐healing mechanism is that when the superhydrophobic surface is damaged, the material that is endowed with self‐repairing function can actively or passively restore the damaged area under certain conditions [92–94] . The functional material is deposited on the self‐healing polymeric membrane, and the healing function of the underlying layer can be transferred to the top layer, repairing the damage as well as restoring function [95–97] …”

Electro‐/Photo‐Thermal Promoted Anti‐Icing Materials: A New Strategy Combined with Passive Anti‐Icing and Active De‐Icing

“…Compared with electro-thermal heat techniques, solar energy as the renewable source is free and sustainable from nature. Recently, researchers investigated sun light (or artifical light) to replace electric power, and developed photo-thermal promoted AIM by combining passive AIM (i.e., SHSs, [106] lubricating surfaces, [107][108][109][110] and other icephobic surfaces [111,112] ) (Figure 7) with active photo-thermal heating with the help of various absorbers (i.e., Fe 3 O 4 , [107,108,[113][114][115] candle soot, [12,116] carbon nanotubes (CNTs), [89,90,112,[117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126] carbon nanofibers, [111] CNTs/Fe 3 O 4 @ poly(cyclotriphosphazene-co-4,4′-sulfonyldiphenol) (PZS), [127] cermet, [32] I 2 , [128] SiC, [129] polypyrrole (PPy), [98] melanin, [130] CNTs/SiO 2 , [131] Fe/candle soot, [106] Fe/Cu, [132] titanium nitride (TiN), [133,134] Ti 2 O 3 , [135] Au/TiO 2 , [66,136] Au/SiO 2 ,…”

“…Compared with electro‐thermal heat techniques, solar energy as the renewable source is free and sustainable from nature. Recently, researchers investigated sun light (or artifical light) to replace electric power, and developed photo‐thermal promoted AIM by combining passive AIM (i.e., SHSs, [ 106 ] lubricating surfaces, [ 107–110 ] and other icephobic surfaces [ 111,112 ] ) ( Figure ) with active photo‐thermal heating with the help of various absorbers (i.e., Fe 3 O 4 , [ 107,108,113–115 ] candle soot, [ 12,116 ] carbon nanotubes (CNTs), [ 89,90,112,117–126 ] carbon nanofibers, [ 111 ] CNTs/Fe 3 O 4 @poly(cyclotriphosphazene‐co‐4,4′‐sulfonyldiphenol) (PZS), [ 127 ] cermet, [ 32 ] I 2 , [ 128 ] SiC, [ 129 ] polypyrrole (PPy), [ 98 ] melanin, [ 130 ] CNTs/SiO 2 , [ 131 ] Fe/candle soot, [ 106 ] Fe/Cu, [ 132 ] titanium nitride (TiN), [ 133,134 ] Ti 2 O 3 , [ 135 ] Au/TiO 2 , [ 66,136 ] Au/SiO 2 , [ 137 ] reduced graphene oxide (rGO), [ 138 ] graphite, [ 139 ] SiO 2 /CuFeMnO 4 , [ 140 ] MXene, [ 141 ] and black engineered aluminum [ 142,143 ] ) (See Table 3 ). Generally, the absorption capacity of these absorbers differs from one to another, and the photo‐thermal effect usually occurs under different light wavelengths, such as solar radiation, [ 107 ] near infrared irradiation, [ 89,108,118,129 ] and infrared irradiation (See Table 3).…”