A New Measuring System for the Determination of the Ice Adhesion Strength on Smooth Surfaces

Abstract

To gain knowledge about cause–effect relationships for the adhesion of ice on surfaces with different chemical groups, we wanted to study the effect of thin polymer layers on the ice adhesion strength. To minimize the effect of roughness, smooth substrates that have generally relatively low ice adhesion strengths were chosen. To be able to obtain highly reproducible values for the region of low ice adhesion and to measure small differences of ice adhesion at surfaces with different chemical compositions, a new measuring system for the determination of the ice adhesion strength which is based on a modified spin-coater was developed. We show its technical potential on the basis of first results on pure silicon wafers and selected hydrophilic polymer layers. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of the water quality on the ice adhesion strength. The obtained data are discussed in the context of physicochemical properties of the layers and of the chemical characteristics of the used polymers.

Water and Ice Adhesion to Solid Surfaces: Common and Specific, the Impact of Temperature and Surface Wettability

“…Figures 34 and 35 in [92], respectively) shows a trend of linear increase in adhesion strength with the temperature decrease. More recent results on shear adhesion strength obtained for the smooth hydrophilic surface of silica and smooth aluminum substrates coated with substituted n-alkyldimethylalkoxysilanes, both hydrogen bonding and non-hydrogen bonding, well agree with this trend [60,107,108]. For the superhydrophobic substrates obtained using different methods of texturing and using various hydrophobic molecules, the trends for the temperature dependence of glaze ice shear adhesion strength (Figure 9) well agree with each other.…”

“…For the former case, the oily layer thickness will be defined by the peculiarities of the texture on solid. For the latter case, the stability and freezing of a layer of hydration water are ruled by the chemical or hydrogen bonding interactions with the functional groups of a hydrophilic polymer [12,78,[108][109][110]. In both situations, the thickness of a liquid layer will be of the order or exceed the surface roughness.…”

Nano-Capillary Bridges Control the Adhesion of Ice: Implications for Anti-Icing via Superhydrophobic Coatings

“…In contrast to the bell-shaped force-vs-temperature curves found by this work, previous results reported in the literature show that adhesion forces between ice and a solid surface monotonically increase with the decreasing temperature. ,, The reason for this discrepancy is that previous studies dealt with equilibrated ice-solid contacts where the ice specimens were formed directly on the solid surfaces via frosting or freezing. − In this case, the ice samples were already consolidated to the solid substrates (i.e., equilibrated contacts), and the size and shape of the contact areas do not change with time. However, not all ice adhesion problems originate from direct frosting or freezing of water on solid surfaces.…”

Surface Science in the Research and Development of Hydrate-Based Sustainable Technologies

“…Such a chemical-free flow assurance technology relies on the fabrication and functionality of the ultralow adhesion coating. A range of natural creatures shows excellent antiwetting behaviors such as Lotus leaves and water-walking insects. , These creatures have motivated researchers to develop bioinspired surfaces for the antiadhesion of ice − and hydrates. ,,− For example, Nguyen et al fabricated a rough hydrophobic surface by embedding Teflon-coated silica microspheres on a silica surface (Table ). The Teflon-coated silica microspheres (diameter 10 μm) act as hydrophobic protrusions and form a super-hydrophobic-like surface structure that exhibits an ultralow adhesion to THF hydrate.…”