Anti- and De-Icing Behaviors of Superhydrophobic Fabrics

Abstract

This paper reports the application of superhydrophobic coatings on cotton fabrics and their functionalities for anti-and de-icing efficacy. Superhydrophobic cotton fabrics with different water-repellent properties have been achieved by decorating the surface of pristine cotton fibers with ZnO structures of varying sizes and shapes through an in situ solution growth process, followed by the treatment of the surface with low-surface-energy coating such as Teflon. The surface morphology of the treated cotton fabrics was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The surface wettability of the treated fabrics was evaluated through the measurement of static contact angle (SCA), contact angle hysteresis (CAH), and sliding angle (SA) of a water droplet. The anti-and de-icing behaviors of the treated fabrics were evaluated through both static (sessile droplet) and dynamic (spraying) tests. The results show that the superhydrophobic fabric with a higher SCA and the lower CAH/SA has superior anti-and de-icing behaviors in both the static and dynamic conditions. Compared to hard substrates, the soft, flexible, and porous (air-permeable) superhydrophobic fabrics can lead to broader applicability of textile-based materials for the design and fabrication of antiand de-icing materials. Furthermore, the multi-scale surface structures of fabrics (fibers, yarns, and weaving constructions) combining with the hierarchical micro-nanostructures of the ZnO coating provides an ideal platform for anti-icing studies.

Fabrication of superhydrophobic transparent cyclic olefin copolymer (COC)‐SiO2 nanocomposite surfaces

“…Superhydrophobic surfaces are described as surfaces having contact angles larger than 150 0 with water and play significant roles in many scientific and industrial areas, such as, self-cleaning surfaces, [1][2][3][4] anti-ice surfaces, [5][6][7] anticorrosion, 8,9 oil-water separation, 10,11 and so on. Various approaches have been utilized to produce superhydrophobic surfaces containing plasma etching, 12 chemical vapor deposition, 13 electrospinning, 14,15 phase separation, 16,17 and so on.…”

Water-Repellent Fluoropolymer-Based Coatings

“…A solid surface is referred to as superhydrophobic [6] when its contact angle is higher than 150 • and its contact angle hysteresis is lower than 10 • (low shear adhesion). These low-adhesion surfaces reveal different properties such as self-cleaning [7,8] or anti-icing [9,10]. We postulate that water repellency might enhance the release performance of fluoropolymer coatings [11].…”

Fabricating self‐stratifying coating for superhydrophobic cotton textile

“…In recent years, functional materials 1 with superhydrophobic properties 2 has become a focus of studies, which have potential applications 3 such as anti-icing, 4 collecting oil, 5 oil-water separation, 6 anti-corrosion, 7 and anti-bio-adhesion. 8 A superhydrophobic surface is defined as a surface with a water contact angle ≥ of 150 and a sliding angle <10 .…”