(755h) Designing Durable Icephobic Surfaces
AIChE Annual Meeting
2016
2016 AIChE Annual Meeting
Materials Engineering and Sciences Division
Thin Film Block Copolymer Self-Assembly and Morphology
Thursday, November 17, 2016 - 5:00pm to 5:15pm
Ice accretion has a negative impact on critical infrastructure, as well as a range of commercial and residential activities. Icephobic surfaces are defined by an ice adhesion strength Ï?ice < 100 kPa. However, the passive removal of ice requires much lower values of Ï?ice, such as on airplane wings or power lines (Ï?ice < 20 kPa). Such low Ï?ice values are scarcely reported, and robust coatings that maintain these low values have not been reported previously. Here we show that, irrespective of material chemistry, by tailoring the crosslink density of different elastomeric coatings, and by enabling interfacial slippage, it is possible to systematically design coatings with extremely low ice-adhesion (Ï?ice < 0.2 kPa). These newfound mechanisms allow for the rational design of icephobic coatings with virtually any desired ice adhesion strength. We also propose a new model for interfacial slippage, based on Flory-Huggins theory coupled with a Hemi-wicking analysis. Our model not only allows for icephobic elastomers, polymers and monolayers to be systematially designed, but also makes a connection to previous icephobic systems based on lubrication. Utilizing our newfound mechanisms and model, we fabricate extremely durable coatings that maintain Ï?ice< 10 kPa after severe mechanical abrasion, acid/base exposure, 100 icing/de-icing cycles, thermal cycling, accelerated corrosion, and exposure to Michigan wintery conditions over several months.
This work was published in Science Advances in March of 2016. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1501496.