Frost formation can cause operational difficulty and efficiency loss for many facilities such as aircraft, wind turbines, and outdoor heat exchangers. Self-propelled jumping by condensate droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces delays frost formation, so many attempts have been made to exploit this phenomenon. However, practical application of this phenomenon is currently unfeasible because many processes to fabricate the superhydrophobic surfaces are inefficient and because self-propelled jumping is difficult to be achieved in a humid and low-temperature environment because superhydrophobicity is degraded in these conditions. Here, we achieved significantly effective anti-icing superhydrophobic aluminum. Its extremely low adhesive properties allow self-propelled jumping under highly supersaturated conditions of high humidity or low surface temperature. As a result, this surface helps retard frost formation at that condition. The aluminum was made superhydrophobic by a simple and cost-effective process that is adaptable to any shape. Therefore, it has promise for use in practical and industrial applications.

Soft and conformable electronics are emerging rapidly and is envisioned as the future of next-generation electronic devices where devices can be readily deployed in various environments, such as on-body, on-skin or as a biomedical implant. Modern day electronics require electrical conductors as the fundamental building block for stretchable electronic devices and systems. In this review, we will study the various strategies and methods of designing and fabricating materials which are conductive, stretchable and self-healable, and explore relevant applications such as flexible and stretchable sensors, electrodes and energy harvesters.

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Steel sandwich sheets (steel−polymer−steel), which are composed of lightweight polymers bonded on both sides with rigid steel sheets, have recently been developed as functional lightweight materials. In this study, a steel sandwich sheet (electrogalvanized (EG) steel sheet−polypropylene (PP)−EG steel sheet) with improved normal adhesion is fabricated without adhesives. Instead, adhesion is achieved via mechanical interlocking between the etched EG steel sheets and PP. Hierarchical structures were formed on the EG steel sheet surface by electrochemical etching to attain effective mechanical interlocking for improving normal adhesion without any adhesives. In the case of the EG steel sheet etched at 6 V for 7 s, a high fraction (∼35%) of holes (size: <1 μm 2 ) with nanoscale scalloped structures was formed on the EG steel sheet surface. The normal adhesion test result of the fabricated steel sandwich sheet showed that the adhesion strength increased from virtually 0 (bare) to 559.6 kPa as a result of mechanical interlocking. The results of the focused ion beam−scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectrometry analyses confirmed the cohesive failure of PP resulting from the successful mechanical interlocking of PP with the holes formed on the etched EG steel sheet. To examine the effect of hierarchical structures on the normal adhesion of the steel sandwich sheet, finite element analysis was implemented.

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