Polyols-Infused Slippery Surfaces Based on Magnetic Fe3O4-Functionalized Polymer Hybrids for Enhanced Multifunctional Anti-Icing and Deicing Properties.

Abstract

High durability, low cost, and superior anti-icing and active deicing multifunctional surface coatings, especially in the extreme environment, are highly desired to inhibit and/or eliminate the detriment of icing in many fields, such as automobile, aerospace, and power transmission. Herein, we first report a facile and versatile strategy to prepare novel slippery polyols-infused porous surfaces (SPIPS's) with the inexpensive polyols as the lubricant liquids. These SPIPS's are fabricated by a spray-coating approach based on amino-modified magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles (MNP@NH2) and amphiphilic P(poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate- co-glycidyl methacrylate) copolymer covalent cross-linked hybrids, followed by infusion with various polyols. The as-prepared surface exhibits excellent antifrosting property, that is, it can greatly postpone frost formation as long as 2700 s at -18 °C. Meanwhile, differential scanning calorimetry results clearly demonstrate that SPIPS's show a remarkable freezing point depression capacity and the crystallization point of water can be decreased as low as -36.8 °C. The SPIPS also displays an extremely low ice adhesion strength (0.1 kPa) due to its unique surface characteristics. Moreover, outstanding active thermal deicing property is achieved for these slippery surfaces because of intrinsically photothermal effect of magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticle. Hence, these results indicate that this kind of multifunctional bioinspired slippery surface, with superb stability, good cost effectiveness, and easy fabrication, can be used as a promising candidate for anti-icing and deicing applications.