Modus Operandi of Protective and Anti-icing Mechanisms Underlying the Design of Longstanding Outdoor Icephobic Coatings

Atmospheric icing has become a global concern due to hazardous consequences of ice accretion on air, land, and sea transport and infrastructure. Icephobic surfaces due to their physicochemical properties facilitate a decrease in ice and snow accumulation under outdoor conditions. However, a serious problem of most superhydrophobic surfaces described in the literature is poor operational durability under harsh corrosive and abrasive loads characteristic of atmospheric operation. Here, we elucidate main surface phenomena determining the anti-icing behavior and show experimentally how different mechanisms contribute to long-term durability. For comprehensive exploitation of those mechanisms, we have applied a recently proposed strategy based on fine-tuning of both laser processing and protocols of deposition of the fluorooxysilanes onto the nanotextured surface. Prolonged outdoor tests evidence that a developed strategy for modification of materials on the nanolevel allows overcoming the main drawbacks of icephobic coatings reported so far and results in resistance to destroying atmospheric impacts.