An energy-free strategy to elevate anti-icing performance of superhydrophobic materials through interfacial airflow manipulation.

Superhydrophobic surfaces demonstrate excellent anti-icing performance under static conditions. However, they show a marked decrease in icing time under real flight conditions. Here we develop an anti-icing strategy using ubiquitous wind field to improve the anti-icing efficiency of superhydrophobic surfaces during flight. We find that the icing mass on hierarchical superhydrophobic surface with a microstructure angle of 30° is at least 40% lower than that on the conventional superhydrophobic plate, which is attributed to the combined effects of microdroplet flow upwelling induced by interfacial airflow and microdroplet ejection driven by superhydrophobic characteristic. Meanwhile, the disordered arrangement of water molecules induced by the specific 30° angle also raises the energy barriers required for nucleation, resulting in an inhibition of the nucleation process. This strategy of microdroplet movement manipulation induced by interfacial airflow is expected to break through the anti-icing limitation of conventional superhydrophobic materials in service conditions and can further reduce the risk of icing on the aircraft surface.