Ice adhesion of PDMS surfaces with balanced elastic and water-repellent properties

Hypothesis: Ice adhesion to rigid materials is reduced with low energy surfaces of high receding contact angles. However, their adhesion strength values are above the threshold value to be considered as ice phobic materials. Surface deformability is a promising route to further reduce ice adhesion. Experiments: In this work, we prepared elastomer surfaces with a wide range of elastic moduli and hydrophobicity degree and we measured their ice adhesion strength. Moreover, we also explored the deicing performance of oil-infused elastomeric surfaces. The ice adhesion was characterized by two detachment modes: tensile and shear. Findings: The variety of elastomeric surfaces allowed us to simultaneously analyze the ice adhesion dependence with deformability and contact angle hysteresis. We found that the impact of these properties depends on the detachment mode, being deformability more important in shear mode and hydrophobicity more relevant in tensile mode. In addition, oil infusion further reduces ice adhesion due to the interfacial slippage. From an optimal balance between deformability and hydrophobicity, we were able to identify surfaces with super-low ice adhesion. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The study found that surface deformability is more important in reducing ice adhesion for ice phobic materials, while hydrophobicity is more crucial in tensile mode. Additionally, oil infusion can further decrease ice adhesion, leading to the identification of surfaces with super-low ice adhesion.