How to Select Phase Change Materials for Tuning Condensation and Frosting? (Adv. Funct. Mater. 3/2023)

Advanced Anti‐Icing Strategies and Technologies by Macrostructured Photothermal Storage Superhydrophobic Surfaces

“…[ 212 ] They demonstrated that the PCM film could trap the latent heat released during condensation and use the heat to delay freezing; the relative smoothness of the liquid film beneath the droplets may also increase the energy barrier for ice nucleation by subduing the surface roughness‐induced freezing. [ 212,213 ] However, the exposed PCMs are not suitable for practical applications to some extent. Due to the problems of leakage and corrosivity of PCMs, they are usually encapsulated as shaped composite PCMs in the form of microcapsules or porous frameworks (Figure 4b).…”

Adhesion of impure ice on surfaces

“…and ensuring safety in various fields, including aviation, energy production, transportation, and building design. 8,9 In this endeavor, several methods, including centrifugal and shear-removal [10][11][12][13] have been devised to measure the ice adhesion strength and then extensively used to study it on various surfaces such as common materials, non-wetting surfaces, oil-infused surfaces, gels etc. 11, [14][15][16][17][18][19] A common element in all these studies is that the ice used in them was formed by freezing pure water.…”

“…We tested other materials (aluminum, stainless steel, poly-tetrafluoroethylene) also, and consistently observed adhesive failure, yielding IAS values consistent with literature reports, thereby validating the reliability of our test setup and adopted protocol. 12,13 Next, we replaced pure water with 1 wt% sodium chloride aqueous solution and froze it on the copper surface under the same conditions, and repeated the experiments to obtain IAS. Here, weight percentage refers to the mass ratio of the contaminant (e.g., salt) in the bulk water of the solution.…”