Mosquito-Eye-Inspired Photothermal Icephobic Surface with Enhanced Anti-Icing and Deicing Efficiency

A bioinspired icephobic surface featuring mosquito-eye-like micronanostructures (IPMM) is designed through candle soot self-assembly on a microspine array surface. The IPMM exhibits remarkable superhydrophobicity in cold temperatures, with low adhesion forces of ∼25.4 μN at a low temperature of -5 °C and impressive liquid repellency. The IPMM with a surface temperature of -5 °C is capable of consecutively repelling impacting droplets at 7.6 °C 15 times. IPMM displays excellent photothermal efficiency, e.g., a rapid defrosting rate of ∼2.03 kg·m-2·h-1, and deicing performance, with a deicing rate of ∼13.32 kg·m-2·h-1, respectively. The outdoor tests of IPMM at -9.6 °C further confirm such an effective desnow and deice capabilities. The snow covering the IPMM completely melted within ∼522 s, and the incompletely covered ice on the IPMM was able to completely slide off in a very short period of time (∼54 s). The ice layer (8 mm thick) that fully covers the IPMM is completely removed within 1359 s under outdoor conditions despite potential interference from external cold winds. This study provides an insight into design of innovative surfaces or materials for deicing tasks, which can be extended into the realms, e.g., aircraft wings, cable, wind blade, etc.