Scalable robust photothermal superhydrophobic coatings for efficient anti-icing and de-icing in simulated/real environments

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 9610 - 12
• Main Authors: Mao, Mingyuan, Wei, Jinfei, Li, Bucheng, Li, Lingxiao, Huang, Xiaopeng, Zhang, Junping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 07-11-2024; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 119/118; 140/146; 147/135; 147/143; 639/301; 639/301/299/921; 639/4077/909/4101/4103; 639/925/357; Adhesives; Coatings; Defrosting; Deicing; Environmental degradation; Fluorination; Freezing; Frost; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrophobic surfaces; Hydrophobicity; Ice accumulation; Mechanical properties; multidisciplinary; Nanorods; Nanostructure; Performance degradation; Phase separation; Robustness; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Self-similarity; Spraying; Surface energy; Thermal conductivity
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-54058-8

Photothermal superhydrophobic coatings are supposed promising to prevent ice accumulation on infrastructures but often experience significant performance degradation in real icing conditions and lack mechanical robustness. Here, we report design of robust photothermal superhydrophobic coatings with three-tier hierarchical micro-/nano-/nanostructures by deposition of nanosized MOFs on natural attapulgite nanorods, fluorination, controlled phase separation of a hydrophobic adhesive and spraying assembly. Phase separation degree and adhesive content significantly influence the coatings’ properties by regulating the structural parameters and morphology. In simulated/real icing environments, the coatings simultaneously show (i) high superhydrophobicity and stable Cassie-Baxter states due to their low-surface-energy, three-tier micro-/nano-/nanostructure, (ii) excellent photothermal effect primarily due to nanosized MOFs, and (iii) good mechanical robustness by the phase-separated adhesive, reinforcement with attapulgite and the coatings’ self-similar structure. Accordingly, combined with low thermal conductivity, the coatings exhibit remarkable anti-icing/frosting (e.g., no freezing in at least 150 min and almost free of frost in 25 min) and de-icing/frosting performances (e.g., fast de-icing in 12.7 min and fast de-frosting in 16.7 min) in such environments. Furthermore, we realize large-scale preparation of the coatings at reasonable costs. The coatings have great application potential for anti-icing and de-icing in the real world by efficiently using natural sunlight.
Photothermal superhydrophobic coatings show poor anti-icing performance and mechanical stability in real conditions. Here, authors report on robust photothermal superhydrophobic coatings with self-similar low-surface-energy three-tier micro-/nano- /nanostructures.