Multi-Scale Superhydrophobic Anti-Icing Coating for Wind Turbine Blades

As a surface functional material, super-hydrophobic coating has great application potential in wind turbine blade anti-icing, self-cleaning and drag reduction. In this study, ZnO and SiO2 multi-scale superhydrophobic coatings with mechanical flexibility were prepared by embedding modified ZnO and SiO2 nanoparticles in PDMS. The prepared coating has a higher static water contact angle (CA is 153°) and a lower rolling angle (SA is 3.3°), showing excellent super-hydrophobicity. Because of its excellent superhydrophobic ability and micro-nano structure, the coating has good anti-icing ability. Under the conditions of −10°C and 60% relative humidity, the coating can delay the freezing time by 1511S, which is 10.7 times slower than the normal freezing time. More importantly, due to the mechanical properties provided by SiO2 and the synergistic effect of micro-nano particles, the coating has excellent mechanical durability. After 10 wear tests, the contact angle of the coating is still as high as 141° and the rolling angle is 6.8°. This research provides a theoretical reference for the preparation of a mechanically stable coating with a simple preparation process, as well as a basic research on the anti-icing behavior of the coating.