防冰材料研究进展

Icing is a quite common natural phenomenon in our daily life. However, undesired ice accretion causes a series of adverse effects on indivi-dual and public activities, and sometimes paralyzes traffic and transportation system, or even power generation and supply system, resulting in enormous economic losses and safety issues. Traditional methods for solving icing problem are based on active processes, mainly including mechanical deicing, heating, chemical treatment, etc. And these strategies are either time consuming, environmentally hazardous, costly or inefficient. In the last decade, designing and deploying materials that can assist the removal of ice have received growing interests. Inspired by creatures such as lotus leaves and pitcher plants, people have created superhydrophobic coatings and slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPSs) to prevent freezing behavior on the surface of materials. In addition, the anti-icing mechanism of antifreeze proteins have been explored by studying organisms in the cold zone, which paves a new approach for the novel design of biomimetic anti-icing polymer materials. In this review, we firstly give a fundamental introduction on the mechanism and performance requirements of anti-icing materials, as well as the apparatus for testing the ice adhesion strength. Then we discuss the advantages and drawbacks of currently existing anti-icing surfaces, e.g. superhydrophobic coatings, lubricating coatings, antifreeze proteins and stress-localized surfaces. Finally, we share our prospective views on potential applications and future development trends of artificial anti-icing materials.