No Ice Left Behind

One look at the scene after a winter storm reveals the magnitude of the challenge presented by surface icing: icing is a nearly generic property of solid surfaces. Rather than approaching the problem strictly in terms of modifying solid properties, the challenge is more effectively met by thinking beyond solids to incorporate the versatile properties of air and liquids on the surface. The strategies presented in this chapter succeed by camouflaging the solid surface to prevent water and ice from recognizing it as such and using the superseding properties of air or liquid to reshape the entire dynamic process that plays out when water contacts the surface at freezing temperatures. We discuss how such surfaces can be rationally designed by taking into account the complex, integrated multiscale dynamics of the icing process and the surface's role in it.