Abstract
Anti-icing surfaces have a critical footprint on daily lives of humans ranging from transportation systems and infrastructure to energy systems, but creation of these surfaces for low temperatures remains elusive. Non-wetting surfaces and liquid-infused surfaces have inspired routes for the development of icephobic surfaces. However, high freezing temperature, high ice adhesion strength, and high cost have restricted their practical applications. Here we report new magnetic slippery surfaces outperforming state-of-the-art icephobic surfaces with a ice formation temperature of −34 °C, 2–3 orders of magnitude higher delay time in ice formation, extremely low ice adhesion strength (≈2 Pa) and stability in shear flows up to Reynolds number of 105. In these surfaces, we exploit the magnetic volumetric force to exclude the role of solid–liquid interface in ice formation. We show that these inexpensive surfaces are universal and can be applied to all types of solids (no required micro/nano structuring) with no compromise to their unprecedented properties.
Highlights
Anti-icing surfaces have a critical footprint on daily lives of humans ranging from transportation systems and infrastructure to energy systems, but creation of these surfaces for low temperatures remains elusive
The same intrinsic limitation, existence of a solid–liquid interface in ice nucleation occurs in slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) resulting in a similar freezing temperature and ice adhesion strength as that of superhydrophobic surfaces
The use of ferrofluids was based on the premise that it provides a magnetic volumetric force once exposed to a magnetic field; ferrofluid is self-healing in the presence of a magnetic field; the magnetic field locks the ferrofluid in place, which allows for magnetic slippery surfaces (MAGSS) to withstand extreme shear stresses; oil-based ferrofluids have a very low evaporation rate allowing for longevity and ferrofluids can be applied to a wide range of surfaces with no required micro/nano fabrication, thereby lowering production costs
Summary
Anti-icing surfaces have a critical footprint on daily lives of humans ranging from transportation systems and infrastructure to energy systems, but creation of these surfaces for low temperatures remains elusive. The same intrinsic limitation, existence of a solid–liquid interface in ice nucleation occurs in SLIPS resulting in a similar freezing temperature and ice adhesion strength as that of superhydrophobic surfaces. Once a water droplet touches the surface, it forms a high-energy solid–liquid interface with a contact angle of Z150°.
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