Solar Deicing Nanocoatings Adaptive to Overhead Power Lines

Abstract

In frigid winter, the ice and snow built‐up on high‐voltage overhead power lines may seriously risk the reliability of electric power transmission and telecommunication systems. Green technologies for power line deicing that can effectively remove the accumulated ice or snow on the cables in a gentle way are highly desired but technically challenging due to the complex cable surfaces. Herein, this work reports a scalable solar‐thermal icephobic nanocoating compatible with both flat and complex curved surfaces. The spray‐coated nanocoating comprises a titanium nitride nanoparticle layer as a low‐emissivity photo‐thermal medium and dual‐scale silica particles as a water‐repellent layer even at low temperatures. Enabled by the collective effects of high‐efficiency solar‐thermal conversion and temperature‐insensitive superhydrophobicity, the nanocoating realizes effective deicing/defrosting on power lines at frigid temperatures down to −15 °C. The versatility of this coating and its compatibility with mass‐production processes render passive solar‐driven deicing technologies promising for practical applications on most outdoor exposed surfaces.

Superhydrophobic microstructures for better anti-icing performances: open-cell or closed-cell?

“…[4][5][6] Inspired by the water-repellency of lotus in nature, superhydrophobic surfaces have been recently regarded as one of the most promising candidates for realizing low-energy passive anti-icing. [7][8][9] However, superhydrophobicity is not equal to icephobicity. 10,11 Only when air pockets exist between droplets and micro-nanostructures to retain the Cassie-Baxter (CB) state do the delayed icing and icephobicity work.…”

Scalable-Manufactured Anticorrosion and Wear-Resistant Superhydrophobic Surfaces

“…Superhydrophobic surfaces have attracted extensive interest due to their self-cleaning, anti-icing, , antifouling, drag reduction, oil–water separation, and water-harvesting applications . Currently, extensive efforts have been made to develop superhydrophobic surfaces toward real-world applications.…”

Freezing as a Path to Build Micro‐Nanostructured Icephobic Coatings

“…[ 21–24 ] Some recent progress in icephobic surfaces, [ 25–27 ] i.e., superhydrophobic [ 28–30 ] and slippery surfaces, [ 31,32 ] enable shedding of the supercooled water before freezing and reducing the ice adhesion strength, [ 33 ] as well as allowing to combine photothermal deicing under sunlight. [ 34–39 ] However, the fabrication procedure of these icephobic materials, which requires intricate microscale and nanoscale structures, is quite sophisticated, sometimes even environmentally unfriendly, and the sizes and orientation of the micro/nano‐structures during preparation lack effective controlling strategies.…”