Highly transparent and robust slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces with anti-icing and anti-fouling performances

Abstract

Recently, taking advantage of slippery liquid-infused surfaces (SLIPS) has been proposed as a simple passive ice removal method. However, the process of frost formation and ice freeze on SLIPS is accompanied by the lubricant migration from the structured substrate to the surface of frozen droplets which would lead to the sacrifice of lubricant. In this paper, highly transparent and robust slippery coatings were carried out by infusing lubricant into tube-like SiO2 composite structure. The tubular material and a stack-hole composite structure contribute a lot to lock the lubricating oil, thus reducing the loss of lubricant during the icing/deicing cycles. The ultra-low ice adhesion strength (∼17 kPa) encourages the SLIPS to be a promising candidate for anti-icing applications. Moreover, capillary action within the unique structure as well endows SLIPS with the self-healing property. As a consequence, the as-prepared samples achieve long-term anti-icing stability while ensuring a glass substrate transmittance of up to 92.01%. In addition, surfaces maintain all the slippery characteristics after being directly exposed to running water for 30 min. Such good stability offers a possibility of applying SLIPS to everyday life.