Multifunctional wearable protective fabrics for wind turbine blades: Triple-functional co-design of electrothermal de-icing/anti-icing, pressure sensing, and environmental protection

Facing the demand of wind turbine blade protection, this study designed a multifunctional wearable fabric by constructing different oxidant-treated poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) on the surface of cotton fabric through chemical in situ polymerization to realize the tri-functional synergy of electro-thermal de-icing/anti-icing, pressure sensing, and environmental protection. The experimental results show that the composite prepared with ferric chloride (FeCl3) as the oxidizing agent show excellent overall performance: In terms of electro-thermal de-icing, it can quickly warm up to 51 °C in 50 s at 9 V, reach 61.48 °C in 325 s, and completely melts ice in 375 s; in terms of pressure monitoring, it has a high sensitivity of 59.30 kPa−1 in the range of 0–20 kPa, which can monitor the blade stress changes caused by ice cover in real time. In addition, the material has excellent wave-absorbing properties (minimum reflection loss (RL min) of −17.5 dB, wave-absorbing efficiency of 98 %), thermal insulation properties (thermal conductivity of 0.03705 W/(m∙K)), and UV-resistant properties (UPF = 388), with top-breakage and tensile rupture retention after UV-accelerated aging of 82.39 % and 57.87 %, respectively. This multifunctional integrated design provides an innovative solution for the intelligent protection of wind turbine blades in extreme climates.