Superhydrophobic and Photothermal PVDF/CNTs Durable Composite Coatings for Passive Anti-Icing/Active De-Icing

The formation and accumulation of ice on the surfaces of external facilities and instrumentation can often cause irreparable damage and disaster. It is significant to develop an easily used technology with a passive anti-icing property to improve the de-icing/anti-icing efficiency. In this work, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are combined to modulate a hierarchical coating structure. The coating surface is treated by 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltrimethoxysilane vapor with a lower surface energy. The resultant coating has excellent anti-icing properties with a water contact angle of 163 degrees, icing delay time up to 584 s, and low ice adhesion of 13.2 kPa (easily removed by a natural wind), which is a result of the multilayered structure (provided by the micro-size PVDF particles and nano-size CNTs). The excellent anti-icing properties are kept even after mechanical abrasion and chemical attacking. The robustness of the coating is from the continuous network formed by PVDF melt in the heating process. The efficient photothermal conversion of CNTs can generate additional heat at low temperatures under the light illumination, which makes the coating achieve a photothermal de-icing performance. This multifunctional photothermal de-icing coating will have a wide range of applications in the outside environment.