Ice accretion may cause serious safety risk and huge economic loss for outdoor facilities. Herein, we report a waterborne polymeric coating based on a copolymer network of methacrylic acid (MAA), acrylamide (AM), N-2-hydroxyethyl acrylamide (HEAA), and methoxypolyethylene glycol (MPEG) with free polyethylene glycol (PEG) dispersed in it. Owing to the good compatibility of free PEG chains and the PEG side chains of the copolymer, the hydrogen bonding between acrylic copolymer and PEG, the free PEG chains can well be trapped in the network with some segments out of the mesh as short PEG chains are grafted on the coating surface, so that the surface has liquid-like properties. Water droplets can readily slip off on the coating surface with a small sliding angle (<30°). Particularly, the surface can hold the properties for a long duration upon water flushing, cycle of wetting-drying, and salt spraying tests. The polymer coating can find application in icing prevention and removal.
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