Sustainable icephobicity on durable quasi-liquid surface

Abstract Sustainable easy removal of accreted ice has been strongly desired worldwide. Passive anti-icing strategies relying on durable surface coatings are highly desired because of their simplicity and low cost compared to the energy-intensive active strategies. The current state-of-the-art anti-icing technologies, such as liquid-infused surfaces, are able to dramatically reduce ice adhesion strength. Nevertheless, severe durability challenges of lubricant depletion and coating damage during the ice removal process hinder their practical applications. Here, we report a quasi-liquid surface that can significantly reduce the ice adhesion strength by reducing the shear modulus of the coating. The quasi-liquid lubrication provided by the highly mobile chains of the flexible polymer changes the sticky ice/solid interface to a non-sticky ice/quasi-liquid interface. Moreover, each molecule chain is chemically bonded on the solid substrate so the entire surface can withstand abrasion in long-term de-icing conditions. The icephobicity on the quasi-liquid coating persists after chemical rinsing while the state-of-the-art liquid-infused surface fails due to lubricant depletion. In addition, we have demonstrated that controlling the shear modulus of an icephobic coating can achieve both small- and large-scale ice removal with the quasi-liquid approach. Such a durable quasi-liquid surface with sustainable ultralow shear strength shows a potential to reduce ice accretion on solar panels, power lines, and vehicles in ice prone regions.