Abstract
Ice adhesion is mainly dictated by surface properties, and water wettability is frequently correlated with ice adhesion strength. However, these established correlations are limited to high ice adhesion and become invalid when the ice adhesion strength is low. Here we carried out an experimental study to explore the relationships between low ice adhesion strength and room temperature surface properties. A variety of room temperature properties of 22 polymer-based hydrophilic and hydrophobic samples consisting of both low and high ice adhesion surfaces were analysed. The properties investigated include water adhesion force, water wettability, roughness, elastic modulus and hardness. Our results show that low ice adhesion strength does not correlate well with water contact angle and its variants, surface roughness and hardness. Low elastic modulus does not guarantee low ice adhesion, however, surfaces with low ice adhesion always show low elastic modulus. Low ice adhesion (below 60 kPa) of tested surfaces may be determinative of small water adhesion force (from 180 to 270 μN). Therefore, measurement of water adhesion force may provide an effective strategy for screening anti-icing or icephobic surfaces, and surfaces within specific values of water adhesion force will possibly lead to a low ice adhesion.
Highlights
The inevitable accretion of ice on exposed surfaces severely influences many normal industrial operations and activities, such as energy distribution, transportation, aircraft, and offshore platforms[1,2,3]
Wang et al reported that the ice adhesion of the elastomeric PDMS nanocomposite was largely dependent on coating thickness[10], while we in our recent experiments found that the value of [1 +cos θrec] was almost the same for the PDMS surfaces with different layer thickness[11]
Our results show that low ice adhesion of tested surfaces may be determinative of small water adhesion force, which may provide an effective strategy for screening anti-icing or icephobic surfaces by evaluation of water adhesion force at room temperature
Summary
Correlations between low ice adhesion strength and wettability. Table 1 shows the measurements of water contact angle, roughness, water adhesion force, and ice adhesion strength on 22 polymer-based coatings (S1–S22), bare aluminum (S23) and bare steel (S24). For the coatings with low ice adhesion strength, R2 for [θadv −θrec] and [cos θrec −cos θadv] are 0.64 and 0.59 as shown in the inserted sub-figures of Fig. 1c and d. Low ice adhesion strengths of the 17 polymer-based coatings do not correlate well with [1 +cos θrec] (or [1 +cos θe]) as illustrated in the highlighted areas and the inserted sub-figures of Fig. 2a and b. Ice adhesion strengths of 24 surfaces were measured to compare the correlations with other surface characteristics such as water wettability, roughness, water adhesion forces, elastic modulus and hardness. Water adhesion force could be used to estimate low ice adhesion at room temperature, which greatly facilitates the design and fabrication of low-cost anti-icing or icephobic surfaces
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