Smart low interfacial toughness coatings for on-demand de-icing without melting.

Nat Commun

Okanagan Polymer Engineering Research & Applications Laboratory, School of Engineering, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, V1V 1V7, Canada.

Published: August 2022

Ice accretion causes problems in vital industries and has been addressed over the past decades with either passive or active de-icing systems. This work presents a smart, hybrid (passive and active) de-icing system through the combination of a low interfacial toughness coating, printed circuit board heaters, and an ice-detecting microwave sensor. The coating's interfacial toughness with ice is found to be temperature dependent and can be modulated using the embedded heaters. Accordingly, de-icing is realized without melting the interface. The synergistic combination of the low interfacial toughness coating and periodic heaters results in a greater de-icing power density than a full-coverage heater system. The hybrid de-icing system also shows durability towards repeated icing/de-icing, mechanical abrasion, outdoor exposure, and chemical contamination. A non-contact planar microwave resonator sensor is additionally designed and implemented to precisely detect the presence or absence of water or ice on the surface while operating beneath the coating, further enhancing the system's energy efficiency. Scalability of the smart coating is demonstrated using large (up to 1 m) iced interfaces. Overall, the smart hybrid system designed here offers a paradigm shift in de-icing that can efficiently render a surface ice-free without the need for energetically expensive interface melting.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9433454PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32852-6DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

interfacial toughness
16
low interfacial
12
passive active
8
active de-icing
8
smart hybrid
8
de-icing system
8
combination low
8
toughness coating
8
de-icing
7
smart
4

Similar Publications

Simultaneous Toughening and Strengthening of Ductile Polymer by Rigid Polymeric Fillers: The Role of Interfacial Entanglement.

Macromol Rapid Commun

January 2025

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS), 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore, 117575, Singapore.

The modification of thermoplastic polymers is frequently impeded by the inherent contradiction between their toughness and strength. In this study, an effective strategy to significantly improve the mechanical properties of ductile polymers by simply adding a complimentary rigid polymer is introduced. This work uses a semi-crystalline polymer aliphatic polyketone (POK) as the matrix material and a small quantity of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) as the rigid polymer, through establishing molecular chain entanglements at the interface to produce POK/PMMA blends with exceptional mechanical property.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A possibility of unprecedented architecture may be opened up by combining both vertical and in-plane heterostructures. It is fascinating to discover that the interlayer stress transfer, interlayer binding energy, and interlayer shear stress of bi-layer Gr/hBN with CNTs heterostructures greatly increase (more than 2 times) with increase the numbers of CNTs and both saturate at the numbers of CNTs = 3, but it causes only 10.92% decrease in failure strain.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Preparation and Application of Nature-inspired High-performance Mechanical Materials.

Acta Biomater

January 2025

The Key Laboratory of Bionic Engineering, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun 130025, China.

Natural materials are valued for their lightweight properties, high strength, impact resistance, and fracture toughness, often outperforming human-made materials. This paper reviews recent research on biomimetic composites, focusing on how composition, microstructure, and interfacial characteristics affect mechanical properties like strength, stiffness, and toughness. It explores biological structures such as mollusk shells, bones, and insect exoskeletons that inspire lightweight designs, including honeycomb structures for weight reduction and impact resistance.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Crosslinking-induced compatibility and toughness enhancement in poly(lactic acid)/poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) blends with epoxidized soybean oil.

Int J Biol Macromol

January 2025

Key Laboratory of Advanced Packaging Materials and Technology of Hunan Province, Hunan University of Technology, Zhuzhou 412007, China. Electronic address:

Polylactide (PLA) is inherently brittle and lacks ductility, which greatly restricts its range of applications. In order to address these issues, we blended PLA with biodegradable poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) (P(3HB-co-4HB)), and introduced epoxidized soybean oil (ESBO) as a reactive modifier to enhance the properties of the PLA/P(3HB-co-4HB) blends. Furthermore, we used theoretical calculations, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Soxhlet extraction, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarising optical microscopy (POM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and mechanical testing to investigate the compatibility, crystallization behavior, microstructure, thermal and mechanical properties of the PLA/P(3HB-co-4HB)/ESBO blends.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

3D-Printable Elastomers for Real-Time Autonomous Self-Healing in Soft Devices.

ACS Mater Lett

January 2025

Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433, United States.

Photocurable self-healing elastomers are promising candidates for producing complex soft devices that can mend damage. However, the practicality of these materials is limited by reliance on external stimuli, custom synthesis, manual realignment, and multihour healing cycles. This paper introduces a tough 3D-printable hybrid acrylate/thiol-ene elastomer (prepared with commercially available precursors) that exhibits nearly instantaneous damage repair in the absence of external stimuli.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!