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Triple-Scale Superhydrophobic Surface with Excellent Anti-Icing and Icephobic Performance via Ultrafast Laser Hybrid Fabrication
journal contribution
posted on 2020-12-28, 21:13 authored by Rui Pan, Hongjun Zhang, Minlin ZhongPassive
anti-icing or icephobic superhydrophobic surfaces have
attracted great interest due to their potential multifaceted implications
for the prevention and/or easy removal of undesired ice in many applications.
However, a superhydrophobic surface with both excellent anti-icing
and icephobic performances has rarely been reported due to difficulties
in sustaining a good Cassie state stability. This is the case especially
under high humidity and freezing environment conditions. In the present
study, a new triple-scale micro/nanostructured superhydrophobic surface
with both excellent anti-icing and icephobic properties has been designed
via a hybrid method, combining ultrafast laser ablation and chemical
oxidation. The novel surface structure is composed of periodical microcone
arrays covered with densely grown nanograsses and dispersedly distributed
microflowers. This surface exhibits an excellent Cassie state stability
with its critical Laplace pressure reaching up to 1450 Pa, which is
essential for good anti-icing and icephobic performances. The anti-icing
feature of the prepared superhydrophobic surface is achieved by a
rapid rolling-off of the impacting droplets. Moreover, an excellent
resistance to the impact of high humidity has been achieved via hierarchical
condensation, coalescence-induced jumping, and upward moving. A good
delay of the heterogeneous nucleation at the solid–liquid interface
under freezing condition has been registered as well, due to the presence
of stable air pockets within the surface structures. In addition,
the ice adhesion strength of the prepared superhydrophobic surface
can be as low as 1.7 kPa, which is the lowest value when compared
with the state-of-the-art superhydrophobic surfaces. Such a low ice
adhesion strength allows the ice to be easily removed by its own weight
and demonstrates an excellent icephobic performance. The repeated
icing–deicing tests indicate a decent deicing robustness of
the synthesized superhydrophobic surface. Thus, this triple-scale
superhydrophobic surface exhibits a good anti-icing and icephobic
performance with an excellent Cassie state stability, high humidity
resistance, and good deicing durability. We hypothesize that the proposed
fabrication strategy and associated basic findings will shed new light
on the design of robust ice-resistant superhydrophobic surfaces and
contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between superhydrophobicity
and ice resistance.
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periodical microcone arraysUltrafast Laser Hybrid Fabrication ...Cassie state stabilityultrafast laser ablationicephobic superhydrophobic surfacesicephobic performancenovel surface structuretriple-scale superhydrophobic surfa...Triple-Scale Superhydrophobic Surfaceice-resistant superhydrophobic surfacesicephobic performancessuperhydrophobic surfaceice adhesion strength