Modulus Mismatch-Guided Interlocked Microphase Separation for Fracture-Responsive Deicing in Ultraslippery Coatings

Ice accretion remains a major challenge to the safety and reliability of infrastructures and transportation systems, particularly under harsh environmental conditions where conventional deicing strategies are inefficient. Herein, we report a fracture-responsive deicing coating that leverages modulus mismatch-driven microphase separation within an ultraslippery (MSU) architecture. By tuning the grafting density of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and incorporating silicone oil (SO), we constructed a bicontinuous network comprising soft PDMS/SO-rich and rigid SiOx-rich domains. This interlocked structure introduces strong modulus contrast and mechanical heterogeneity, enabling interfacial slippage, stress localization, and fracture-assisted ice delamination. The optimized MSU-50 coating exhibits ultralow ice adhesion strength (τice, ∼ 4.5 kPa) and maintains performance after 100 icing/deicing cycles, 30 day of water immersion, and 300 abrasion cycles. Under large-scale or dynamic conditions, its low interface toughness (∼0.022 J m–2) enables complete, gravity-driven ice removal within 76 ms. Finite element analyses reveal that the interlocked microphase network significantly amplifies local stress intensity and microcrack formation compared with homogeneous controls, validating the proposed fracture-responsive mechanism. This study establishes a scalable and durable design framework for mechanically adaptive, energy-efficient anti-icing coatings, offering practical potential for aerospace, wind power, and cold-region applications.