Work

A tri-mode energy-effective composite film with multi-dimensional array structure for All-Day Anti-/De-icing and intelligent sensing

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Photothermal superhydrophobic surfaces exhibit potential to replace conventional mechanical and chemical de-icing methods across engineering scenarios. However, solar irradiation exhibits day-to-day change and seasonal variations significantly affect de-icing efficiency. Herein, a highly conductive photo/electro-thermal superhydrophobic film (AGHCS) is fabricated by scrape-coating and screen-printing with a continuous micro-nano hierarchical ridge-like grid pattern structure. AGHCS enables real-time anti-icing and rapid de-icing under irradiation. When irradiance is insufficient, the thermally/electrically conductive network confers electrothermal de-icing, ensuring all-weather anti-/de-icing. AGHCS surface temperature can reach over 60 °C under 1 sun at −30 °C and 80 %RH. Finite-difference time-domain simulations (FDTD) indicate that ridge-like Ag nanowires/microflakes induce localized surface plasmon resonances that substantially enhance the near-field electric field, thus enhancing photothermal conversion. The grid pattern rapidly melts ice and snow layers, detaching 6 mm-thick ice within 90 s via Joule heating at 4 V. Moreover, it prevents water from freezing on the surface under harsh conditions of an icing wind tunnel (−5 °C, LWC = 2 and 6 g/m 3 , wind speeds = 10–15 m/s). Further, the film supports multimodal, full-process dynamic sensing of underwater motion, snowmelt, and icing-de-icing, enabling real-time environmental-state monitoring. This work presents novel approaches to exploit tri-mode energy-efficient anti-/de-icing technologies and provides valuable insights for intelligent de-icing.

Source: Materials & Design

DOI: 10.1016/j.matdes.2025.115060