Efficient photothermal deicing employing superhydrophobic plasmonic MXene composites

Deicing and anti-icing on the surface, such as train tracks, highways, airports, aircraft, cars, ships, wind turbines, and outdoor cables, represent a significant challenge. Many different chemical compounds and coatings were explored and used to address these problems, but some limitations remain. The anti-icing ability under low temperature and high humidity conditions, the low deicing efficiency, and the complex preparation method, etc., restrict the application and development of deicing materials. This paper presents a simple and efficient solution based on new plasmonic photothermal superhydrophobic composite coatings. A hybrid MXene@Au-waterborne polyurethane (MXene@Au-WPU) coating is specifically designed to realize a significant temperature rise due to the high absorption and rapid heat transfer of the plasmonic MXene@Au in the entire coating. To achieve superhydrophobicity, chemically modified SiO2 nanoparticles were deposited on the surface of the MXene@Au-WPU layer to obtain a fSiO2/MXene@Au-WPU(fluoroalkyl silanes-SiO2/MXene@Au-WPU) superhydrophobic photothermal coating featuring a contact angle of 153°. The composite coating was demonstrated to be adequate for anti-icing and deicing applications, with an ultra-long anti-icing time of 1053 s under low temperature and high humidity conditions (− 20 °C, relative humidity 68%). Compared to previous work, the coating also achieved a super high photothermal deicing efficiency of 73.1%. The result presented in the article furthermore demonstrates resistance to corrosive liquids with pH ranging from 1 to 13. A combination of the anti-icing, corrosion-resistance, and facile implementation features of this multifunctional coating enhances its high potential for implementation in various surface technologies.Graphical abstract