Slippery liquid infused porous surfaces with anti-icing performance fabricated by direct laser interference lithography

Abstract

Slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPSs) have recently been an effective alternative to superhydrophobic surfaces (SHSs) for anti-/de-icing applications. However, in practical applications, SLIPSs are limited by their unsatisfactory substrate manufacturing technologies and unsustainable oil storage and adjustment capacities. In this work, we fabricated micro-groove structures on SLIPS substrates by direct laser interference lithography (DLIL) in one step, coating with lubricant oil to obtain DLIL-SLIPS. The oil was firmly locked and stored into the groove structures, which can be self-supplemented even after 10 icing/de-icing cycles, leading to an efficient anti-icing performance as well as improved durability and robustness. Experiments showed that the DLIL-SLIPS exhibits better ice adhesion property with the apparent contact angle (CA) of 143° and ice adhesion strength of 7.16 kPa. The coefficient of friction was reduced up to 63.3 % compared to the substrate. They indicated that the groove structures have the excellent function of friction-reduction. We envision that this method is useful for the fabrication of composite functional SLIPS in anti-icing and friction-reduction applications such as bearings and turbine blades, especially in extreme environments.