Superhydrophobic anti-icing coatings with self-deicing property using melanin nanoparticles from cuttlefish juice

Both anti-icing and deicing are significant for reducing ice disasters and economic losses. Herein, a superhydrophobic photothermal coating with anti-icing and photothermal deicing performance was fabricated by sequential spraying cuttlefish juice melanin and hydrophobic SiO2 nanoparticles. The melanin particles rendered the coating microscale roughening structure and photothermal property, and the SiO2 nanoparticles imparted to the surface nanoscale roughness and low surface energy. Consequently, the as-obtained coating showed excellent superhydrophobicity with high photothermal conversion property, which delayed the icing time of water droplets on the surface to 144 s, nearly 5 times of that on common glasses. The adhesion strength of ice decreased to 25.65 kPa. The equilibrium temperature of the coating was as high as 67.6 °C under one solar intensity. Therefore, the ice on the coating melted rapidly under solar light and automatically taken off by its weight, showing excellent deicing performance. Additionally, the self-cleaning property of the superhydrophobic coating prevented the surface from being polluted during outdoor application, which is conducive to protecting the photothermal conversion property and long-term photothermal deicing function of the coating.