1 research outputs found
Enhancing the Mechanical Durability of Icephobic Surfaces by Introducing Autonomous Self-Healing Function
Ice
accretion presents a severe risk for human safety. Although
great efforts have been made for developing icephobic surfaces (the
surface with an ice adhesion strength below 100 kPa), expanding the
lifetime of state-of-the-art icephobic surfaces still remains a critical
unsolved issue. Herein, a novel icephobic material is designed by
integrating an interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) into an autonomous
self-healing elastomer, which is applied in anti-icing for enhancing
the mechanical durability. The molecular structure, surface morphology,
mechanical properties, and durable icephobicity of the material were
studied. The creep behaviors of the new icephobic material, which
were absent in most relevant studies on self-healing materials, were
also investigated in this work. Significantly, the material showed
great potentials for anti-icing applications with an ultralow ice
adhesion strength of 6.0 ± 0.9 kPa, outperforming many other
icephobic surfaces. The material also exhibited an extraordinary durability,
showing a very low long-term ice adhesion strength of ∼12.2
kPa after 50 icing/deicing cycles. Most importantly, the material
was able to exhibit a self-healing property from mechanical damages
in a sufficiently short time, which shed light on the longevity of
icephobic surfaces in practical applications