Liquid-Infused Nanostructured Surfaces with Extreme Anti-Ice and Anti-Frost Performance

• Published in: ACS nano 2012-08, Vol.6 (8), p.6569-6577
• Main Authors: Kim, Philseok, Wong, Tak-Sing, Alvarenga, Jack, Kreder, Michael J, Adorno-Martinez, Wilmer E, Aizenberg, Joanna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adhesion; Aluminum; Aluminum - chemistry; Crystallization - methods; Deicing; Droplets; Friction; Frost; Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; Ice - analysis; Ice accumulation; Liquids; Macromolecular Substances - chemistry; Materials Testing; Molecular Conformation; Nanostructure; Nanostructures - chemistry; Nanostructures - ultrastructure; Particle Size; Porosity; Slip; Solutions - chemistry; Surface Properties
• ISSN: 1936-0851; 1936-086X
• DOI: 10.1021/nn302310q

Ice-repellent coatings can have significant impact on global energy savings and improving safety in many infrastructures, transportation, and cooling systems. Recent efforts for developing ice-phobic surfaces have been mostly devoted to utilizing lotus-leaf-inspired superhydrophobic surfaces, yet these surfaces fail in high-humidity conditions due to water condensation and frost formation and even lead to increased ice adhesion due to a large surface area. We report a radically different type of ice-repellent material based on slippery, liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS), where a stable, ultrasmooth, low-hysteresis lubricant overlayer is maintained by infusing a water-immiscible liquid into a nanostructured surface chemically functionalized to have a high affinity to the infiltrated liquid and lock it in place. We develop a direct fabrication method of SLIPS on industrially relevant metals, particularly aluminum, one of the most widely used lightweight structural materials. We demonstrate that SLIPS-coated Al surfaces not only suppress ice/frost accretion by effectively removing condensed moisture but also exhibit at least an order of magnitude lower ice adhesion than state-of-the-art materials. On the basis of a theoretical analysis followed by extensive icing/deicing experiments, we discuss special advantages of SLIPS as ice-repellent surfaces: highly reduced sliding droplet sizes resulting from the extremely low contact angle hysteresis. We show that our surfaces remain essentially frost-free in which any conventional materials accumulate ice. These results indicate that SLIPS is a promising candidate for developing robust anti-icing materials for broad applications, such as refrigeration, aviation, roofs, wires, outdoor signs, railings, and wind turbines.