Fabrication of slippery Zn surface with improved water-impellent, condensation and anti-icing properties

Abstract

Zinc and its alloys are valuable crucial materials applied in the fields of automobile, ship manufacturing and construction industries. However, their application is limited due to poor performance on water-resistance, condensation and anti-icing property. Slippery liquid-infused porous surface (SLIPS) has been widely used owing to excellent water-repellent, condensation and anti-icing properties. In this work, a SLIPS was fabricated based on zinc substrate by using electrochemical etching, low surface energy modification and lubricant infusion, successively. According to the SEM morphologies and EDS images, it could be confirmed that the rough porous surface structure, low surface energy modification and infused lubricants are key factors accounting for the excellent anti-wetting property of fabricated slippery Zn surface. The experimental results showed that the SLIPS on zinc substrate exhibited outstanding water-repellent performance at a wide range of temperature and drop impact velocity. Moreover, its anti-wetting ability can be sustained even under the impacts of droplets or the continuous water jet. Owing to its dropwise condensation strategy, the SLIPS shows reasonable water collection efficiency, which exceeds 60 mg/(cm2·h) at relative humidity of 90%. The excellent anti-icing property is demonstrated by the simulated ice rain test and deicing force test. And the results showed that only tiny residue ice left on the SLIPS and the deicing force was 2–3 times smaller than ordinary surface. The prepared SLIPS is expected to be an adaptable and efficient method for enhancing the water-repellent, condensation and anti-icing properties of zinc substrate, and may expand the application in energy-efficient fluid handing & transportation, medicine and anti-fouling operating in low temperature environment.