Delaying Ice and Frost Formation Using Phase‐Switching Liquids

Abstract

Preventing water droplets from transitioning to ice is advantageous for numerous applications. We demonstrate that the use of certain phase change materials which are in liquid state under ambient conditions and have melting point higher than the freezing point of water -referred herein as Phase Switching Liquids (PSL), can impede condensation-frosting lasting up to 300 and 15 times longer in bulk and surface infused state respectively compared to conventional surfaces under identical environmental conditions. The freezing delay is primarily a consequence of the trapped latent heat release due to condensation, but is also affected by the solidified PSL surface morphology and its miscibility in water. Regardless of surface chemistry, PSL infused textured surfaces exhibit low droplet adhesion when operated below the corresponding melting point of the solidified PSLs, engendering ice and frost repellency even on hydrophilic substrates. Additionally, solidified PSL surfaces display varying degrees of optical transparency, can repel a variety of liquids and self-heal upon physical damage.

A Review of Smart Lubricant-Infused Surfaces for Droplet Manipulation

“…These unique features potentially address the drawback of the superhydrophobic surface (e.g., depletion of air cushion). Benefiting from these excellent properties, LISs are used to exploit different functions in a wide range of fields, such as anti-biofouling [2][3][4][5][6], corrosion resistance [7][8][9][10][11][12], ice/frost delaying [13][14][15][16][17], self-cleaning [18][19][20][21][22], water harvesting [23][24][25], drag reduction [26][27][28][29][30][31], heat transfer [32][33][34]. Some recent works give an overview of LIS's overall development ranging from fundamental fabrication to various applications [35,36].…”

Dynamic Anti‐Icing Surfaces (DAIS)

“…Phase‐switching liquids (PSLs) containing cyclohexane (SCh) were used for inhibiting ice growth, for their property of holding ice melting temperature ( T mp ) above water freezing point ( T fp ). [ 170 ] When vapor condensed on a solidified PSL surface, the latent heat released during the condensation was trapped in the droplets. The temperature increased at the solidified cyclohexane (SCh) and air interfaces could attain ≈5 °C ( Figure 13 ).…”

Bioinspired Multifunctional Anti-icing Hydrogel

“…Undesired icing/frosting on foreign surfaces causes serious economic, energy, and safety issues and environmental hazards in many areas of society. [1][2][3][4][5] In nature, the complex and diverse ice formation processes, typically from nucleation to subsequent propagation and finally adhesion, always occur over a wide range of temperatures and environmental conditions, resulting in different ice crystals such as glaze, rime, freezing rain, frost, and snow. [6][7][8][9] These bring great difficulty to designing icephobic materials facing different icing scenarios in practical applications.…”