Design and preparation of bioinspired slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces with anti-icing performance via delayed phase inversion process

Abstract

In recent years, slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPSs) have been designed and prepared through miming Nepenthes pitcher plants because of their enormous potential applications in water repellency, anti-icing and anti-fouling. In this work, a PTFE-PVDF composite membrane with hierarchical micro/nano/porous structure and superhydrophobicity was designed and fabricated by immobilizing polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) nanoparticles on a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane through delayed phase inversion process. Then three lubricants of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), ethyl oleate and perfluoro polyether (PFPE) were infused into the PTFE-PVDF composite membranes, respectively, to gain three kinds of SLIPSs, resulting in the property transformation of composite membranes from superhydrophobicity to slippery performance. Wettability, transparency, durability and anti-icing performance of three SLIPSs were investigated. The ethyl oleate infusion surface had outstanding water-repellent ability with minimum water sliding angle of 8°. PDMS infusion surface had better transparency. The SLIPSs also possessed excellent oil-holding capacity with less changes of wetting behaviors for PDMS and PFPE infusion surface in 20 days. In addition, comparing with superhydrophobic surface and glass slide, three SLIPSs had better icing delay property. Moreover, their ice adhesion strengths were less than 20 kPa, especially the value of PFPE infusion surface was 13.9 kPa, showing excellent anti-icing performance. Furthermore, after experiencing 10 icing/melting cycles, they still maintained less ice adhesion strengths, which displayed outstanding durability. This research is expected to supply a simplified method to fabricate hierarchical micro/nano/porous structure and then gain high performance SLIPSs.