Experimental analysis shows improved hydrophobic performance in a wet cold environment, suggesting potential for anti-icing applications.
In this study, a silicone rubber-based low-ice adhesion coating was prepared, and the variation law of its anti-icing performance in a wet and cold environment (0.5°C, 98% RH) was systematically investigated. The experimental results show that the coating has stable hydrophobic performance. The static contact angle is maintained at 100° - 115°, and the sliding angle is 10° - 18°. However, with the extension of the water spraying time, the sliding angle slightly increases, indicating that the wet and cold environment slightly affects its dynamic hydrophobic property. The initial ice adhesion strength is only about 10 kPa, which is much lower than that of the bare aluminum surface (>300 kPa). Although it increases slightly with the water spraying time, it still maintains excellent low ice adhesion characteristics. SEM and roughness analysis (Ra=0.8-1.2 μm) showed that the coating surface presented a dense and uniform wrinkled structure, and the wet and cold environment did not significantly change its microstructure, indicating that it has good environmental stability. This coating shows good application potential in the field of anti-icing for power systems.
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Ma et al. (2025) studied this question.