Application of anti-icing coating based on adsorption of functional substances by microporous sphere

Abstract The occurrence of ice accretion on cold surfaces such as airplanes, power lines and wind turbines can cause various degrees of damage such as flight failure and power outage. Therefore, the reduction of ice adhesion is of great significance and widen application in aviation field. Based on the research status of anti-icing liquid-infused porous surfaces (LIPS) materials, this work attempts to use high specific surface area microporous silica as the carrier to adsorb a large content of functional substances with properties of lubricity and moisture retention, such as silicone oil and polyethylene glycol, and elastic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) crosslink polymer was selected as the substrate system. The functional substances are uniformly mixed in different proportions to construct different functional surfaces, which can form an oil/water lubricating layer interface between the cold air and the solid surface to reduce the ice adhesion strength. The functional coating in this work has a certain delaying frosting ability compared with uncoated aluminum plate and pure silicone rubber material in the low temperature environment of −10 °C to −15 °C. By testing the shear force between the ice and the cold surface, the ice adhesion strength on the functional substance dispersed material compared to the pure silicone rubber material can be reduced by 1/3 to 1/5, and can be reduced by 1/5 to 1/8 compared to the aluminum plate. It has a good low ice adhesion strength effect and can be used as anti-icing materials potentially.