Robust and self-healing superhydrophobic aluminum surface with excellent anti-icing performance

Abstract

Icing on the transmission line can cause disastrous consequence. At present, a lot of research has been conducted on related anti-icing technologies such as superhydrophobic surface (SHS). However, the application of SHS was limited by the poor durability. In this work, a durable superhydrophobic surface with an outstanding anti-icing property has been prepared via combining anodization and infusion of healing agent fluoroalkylsilane (FAS-17). The as-prepared SHS can efficiently prevent the icing process in glaze ice due to the effective repelling of the cooled water droplets at -8 °C. Beside, excellent anti-frosting performance has also been gained due to the self-transfer movement of condensation droplets. Furthermore, the as-prepared SHS surface can heal its superhydrophobicity after 8 times oxygen plasma or 64 times (7.68 m) of abrasion damage under the pressure of 12 kPa. The self-healing ability shows good stability even being heated at 80 °C after 30 days. The findings could provide developed insights into the design of high-performance anti-icing SHS based on the porous structure construction and self-healing modification.