Study on preparation and performance of anti-icing Superhydrophobic coating applied to composite insulators

Composite insulators are mainly used in overhead transmission lines to increase creepage distance, support conductors, and prevent current from returning to ground, while the problems of ice accumulation and dirt faced by composite insulators on transmission lines affect the normal operation of composite insulators. Maintaining the normal function of composite insulators, while keeping its superhydrophobicity still faces serious challenges. In this work, the superhydrophobic coating was prepared based on the air spraying method, using epoxy resin and silicone resin as binders, and doped with micron sized aluminum oxide and n-dodecyl mercaptan modified nanometer sized zinc oxide particles. Air cushion formed due to the rough structure constructed by micro-nano particles, which is the critical influencing factor for coatings to achieve superhydrophobicity, surprisingly, the prepared superhydrophobic coating delays the icing time of water droplets to 4200 s, and the water contact angle is more than 150 degrees. In addition, superhydrophobic coatings exhibit good mechanical and electricity durability as a result of the mixing of two types of binders. These excellent properties make the prepared superhydrophobic coatings have great potential for application of extreme environmental conditions.