Fabrication of anti-icing/de-icing superhydrophobic composite coating based on hydrangea-like ZnO@CuS

Considering the destructive effect of ice accumulation on material surfaces, substantial attention has been devoted to fabricating anti-icing superhydrophobic coatings. However, most superhydrophobic coatings cannot deice. Herein, a special nanofiller was designed and fabricated as the main component of a superhydrophobic coating for simultaneously improving its anti-icing and de-icing performance. Firstly, hydrangea-like ZnO@CuS (H-ZnO@CuS) was synthesized via a precipitation process at room temperature. Then, a superhydrophobic composite coating composed of epoxy resin (ER), H-ZnO@CuS, and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was fabricated on the Al surface via a layer-by-layer spraying process. The results demonstrate that, after 100 tape peeling tests and 40 abrasion cycles, the hydrophobicity of the ER/H-ZnO@CuS/PDMS composite coating remains basically unchanged, and its water contact angle (WCA) can still reach 156.3 degrees, thus exhibiting excellent superhydrophobicity and mechanical durability. More importantly, the composite coating displays outstanding anti-icing and de-icing performance, which can prolong the static freezing time of water droplets from 3 to 13 min at-15 degrees C and prevent the formation of ice when water is dripped continuously for 20 min at-10 degrees C. Additionally, the melting time of ice at-15 degrees C can be shortened from 5 to 1 min due to the photothermal behavior of H-ZnO@CuS. Therefore, this work presents a promising strategy to endow coatings with simultaneous anti-icing and de-icing performance. This approach can not only improve the current efficiency of deicing/anti-icing processes but also reduce the energy consumption by effectively reducing or eliminating the accumulation of water on the structure surface before it freezes.