Epidermal Gland Inspired Self-Repairing Slippery Lubricant-Infused Porous Coatings with Durable Low Ice Adhesion

Abstract

The limited durability of slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) restricts their practical applications. Inspired by the epidermal glands of skins, we developed a facile approach to durable SLIPS with gland-like storage and release functions for icephobicity. By introducing a hybrid surfactant as a lubricant into the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix, lubricant capsules were formed and mono-dispersed in the matrix, working as gland-like structures to release lubricant. The obtained SLIPS showed durable low ice adhesion strength and thermal durability simultaneously. In detail, the enhanced durability for icephobicity was demonstrated by 20 icing/deicing tests, in which the lubricant remains on the surface; the coatings showed negligible weight loss when stored at 100 °C for 60 h, displaying pronounced thermal durability of the slippery effect. Our current strategy sheds new light on a facile fabrication of mechanically and thermally durable SLIPS for icephobicity.

A Review of Smart Lubricant-Infused Surfaces for Droplet Manipulation

“…These unique features potentially address the drawback of the superhydrophobic surface (e.g., depletion of air cushion). Benefiting from these excellent properties, LISs are used to exploit different functions in a wide range of fields, such as anti-biofouling [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ], corrosion resistance [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ], ice/frost delaying [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ], self-cleaning [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ], water harvesting [ 23 , 24 , 25 ], drag reduction [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ], heat transfer [ 32 , 33 , 34 ]. Some recent works give an overview of LIS’s overall development ranging from fundamental fabrication to various applications [ 35 , 36 ].…”

Fabrication of a Porous Slippery Icephobic Surface and Effect of Lubricant Viscosity on Anti-Icing Properties and Durability

“…Low ice adhesion materials are a hopeful anti-icing strategy where the ice automatically detaches from the surface by gravity [14,15]. Recently, slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces (SLIPSs) were considered as promising anti-icing materials, which were inspired by Nepenthes pitcher plants [8,16]. SLIPSs have excess lubricant infused into the pores, resulting in the liquid layer on the top.…”

“…A lubricant has mobility, and thus can allow self-healing properties [18,25]. However, the liquid lubricant may be depleted because of evaporation or the de-icing process, which causes ice adhesion values to increase [16,26]. SLIPSs can be obtained by infusing a lubricant into a porous structure.…”

Understanding the Solid–Ice Interface Mechanism on the Hydrophobic Nano-Pillar Structure Epoxy Surface for Reducing Ice Adhesion

“…Since the secret of the lotus leaf was discovered [8], many researchers proposed superhydrophobic materials as the pivotal point in the search for a passive anti-icing regime [9], as the air layer between the droplet and substrate could block the heat transfer in freezing conditions and result in an icing delay effect [10][11][12][13][14]. Moreover, various anti-icing/icephobic surfaces were built by imitating natural structures such as the lotus and nepenthes [5,15] to change the interface state by introducing an air layer and a lubricating layer on micro-and nano-structure surfaces [16][17][18][19]. On this basis, researchers have successively fabricated various hierarchically structured superhydrophobic coatings with excellent anti-icing performance [14,20,21].…”