Fabricating Mechanism and Preparation of Anti-Icing & Icephobic Coating

Ice adhesion and accretion on the facilities of aviation, telecommunication, electricity and transportation can lead to major inconvenience for our daily life and can even cause great economic losses. Therefore, it is worthwhile to study anti-icing and icephobic technology. Among all of them, concerning mechanical removing, electrothermal methods, spraying chemicals and coatings, anti-icing & icephobic coating is the research hotspot due to its obvious advantages. such as low energy consumption, environmentally friendly and so on. It focuses on mitigating or even eliminating ice accumulation by extending freezing time and reducing ice adhesion strength. Extending freezing time is conducive to condensed water rolling off the substrates before it freezes via outside power, such as gravity, wind power and centrifugal force. Reducing ice adhesion strength makes de-icing procedure facile even if the condensed water has frozen on the substrates. It has been proved that by optimizing surface physicochemical properties and surface topography, both ideal effects can be achieved. On the basis of analyzing the mechanism, the influencing factors of anti-icing and icephobic properties are comprehensively discussed. Taking relative factors into consideration, a balance need to be reached between contradictory ones. Furthermore, the research progress of designing and fabricating anti-icing & icephobic coating is reviewed, including hydrophilic coating, hydrophobic coating and multi-functional composite coating. Finally, the prospective tendency of anti-icing & icephobic coating is proposed based on the current challenges. Key words anti-icing & icephobic; coating; surface; ice adhesion strength; superhydrophobic