A fluorinated MXene-doped superhydrophobic coating with mechanochemical robustness, repairable wettability and photothermal conversion for highly efficient anti/de-icing

Undesired ice accretion often causes substantial energy consumption, economic loss and detrimental safety consequences in a variety of industrial processes and human activities. It is essential but still challenging to develop versatile icephobic materials for practical application. In this paper, a novel substrate-independent superhydrophobic coating doped with fluorinated MXenes (MX-SHC) is prepared by simply spraying and curing an epoxy-based mixture containing polydimethylsiloxane, hydrophobic silica nanoparticles and fluorinated MXene nanoflakes, which harvests mechanochemical robustness, repairable wettability and photothermal conversion. MX-SHC exhibits high water contact angle similar to 158 degrees and sliding angle similar to 4 degrees and can withstand highly corrosive liquids, drastic temperature alternation, long-term ultraviolet irradiation, vigorous waterjet impact, multi-cycled sandpaper abrasion and repetitive tape peeling. With the assistance of heat can MX-SHC repair its superhydrophobicity repeatedly after frequent O-2 plasma treatment. Coupling excellent surface superhydrophobicity with exceptional solar-thermal performance, MX-SHC can eliminate surface frost within 23 s, prevent sessile water droplet from freezing for more than 30 min, and melt frozen water droplet within 4 min under 1 sun illumination even at -30 degrees C. Moreover, the adhesion strength of ice with MX-SHC can be measured to be as low as approximately 15 kPa. Our work presents a facile and rational strategy to design and fabricate robust photothermal superhydrophobic coatings for highly efficient anti/de-icing.