A Superhydrophobic Photothermal Cotton Fabric for Anti-Icing/Deicing and High-Performance Urea–Formaldehyde Foam

Superhydrophobic photothermal coatings are promising for anti-icing and deicing, but the current challenge lies in developing a readily scalable and efficient photothermal material. Herein, a low-cost and efficient superhydrophobic photothermal cotton fabric (PDMS/PPy@fabric) was facilely fabricated by in situ growth of polypyrrole (PPy) and siloxane (PDMS) treatment. The synergistic integration of the photothermal property of PPy, transparent and robust PDMS layer with low surface energy, and hierarchical micro-/nanoscale structure endowed the fabric with exceptional durable superhydrophobicity and photothermal conversion efficiency. The fabric demonstrated anti-icing performance with an icing delay time of 2400 s. The surface equilibrium temperature was as high as 107.2 °C, and the freezing droplet melted rapidly (180 s) under one solar light and automatically taken off due to minimized surface adhesion, which avoided the refreezing and enhanced the photothermal conversion. Furthermore, PDMS/PPy@fabric was incorporated into urea-formaldehyde (UF) resin to fabricate a lightweight composite foam via an innovative photothermal foaming process, which eliminated the conventional oven curing and enhanced mechanical strength and water resistance. This study provides a perspective to develop a photothermal material for multifunctional application.