Scientists develop environmentally safe, frost-resistant coatings
A longer-lasting alternative to conventional deicers

Date:
March 31, 2022
Source:
University of Illinois Chicago
Summary:
Engineers have developed a longer-lasting alternative to
conventional deicers.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Airports are busy, especially during the winter. As passengers wait
to board, delays get longer when airplanes need to be dowsed with
thousands of gallons of deicing fluids that help them fight the frigid
winter. But as soon as the plane takes off, most of the liquid is gone
from the surface of the aircraft and ends up polluting freshwater streams
and lakes.


==========================================================================
In an endeavor to make a more efficient product immune to ice for such demanding industries and consumers, Sushant Anand, UIC assistant professor
of mechanical engineering, and Rukmava Chatterjee, a UIC Ph.D. student,
have developed a longer-lasting alternative to conventional deicers. They
say it could also benefit other industries.

"We questioned the lifetime of the cryoprotectants and looked at new
ways to increase their effectivity," Anand said. "Glycols dissolve
very fast in the water and get washed away before the plane takes off,
and it's a serious problem that costs hundreds of millions of dollars
-- most of which literally ends up in the drain. We thought, why not
improve such chemicals themselves, and make alternatives that can last
longer while being more biofriendly. And that is what we ended up doing."
To accomplish their goal, the researchers developed an extensive family of
more than 80 anti-freezing coatings, which can be classified as polymeric solutions, emulsions, creams and gels. The formulations can be easily
applied to aluminum, steel, copper, glass, plastic or any industrial
surface without preconditioning or expensive surface treatments.

"Our coatings are an all-in-one package which can delay formation of
frost for extended hours and simultaneously cause any ice formed on
its surface to easily shed off by a gentle breeze or simple substrate
tilting," Chatterjee said.

Their work is reported in an Advanced Materials article titled "A family
of frost-resistant and icephobic coatings." The coatings are a family
of phase change material-based formulations and multifunctional coatings
which can tailor solid foulant adhesion on functional surfaces, ranging
from ice to bacteria, irrespective of their inherent material structure
and chemistry. This was engineered by regulating how chemicals leach out
of the material system and by creating a lubricating surface layer that
is both slippery and non-freezing in nature.



==========================================================================
The anti-freezing gels are also transparent, which is critical for
applications like traffic signals, runway lights that assist pilots
during landings, automotive windshields or building windows.

"Imagine coating your smartwatch with our gel that can inhibit ice
accretion in the chilly negatives while simultaneously preventing any
bacterial contamination," Chatterjee said.

"Since our anti-icing sprays are bio-friendly and anti-bacterial, we
even think there is a potential to use them in agriculture to prevent
crops from being ruined by severe frost," Anand said. "But that is a
pipe dream, and we need to do more studies to see if there will be any long-term adverse effect on the plants." A worldwide patent application
titled "Compositions and Methods for Inhibiting Ice Formation on Surfaces"
has been filed by UIC's Office of Technology Management.

"There is great potential in these materials for many applications,
and I think the day when commercial versions of our materials come out
just got closer," Anand said.

Anand Research Group members Hassan Bararnia and Umesh Chaudhuri
collaborated with Chatterjee on the experiments.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
University_of_Illinois_Chicago. Original written by David
Staudacher. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Rukmava Chatterjee, Hassan Bararnia, Sushant Anand. A family of
frost‐resistant and icephobic coatings. Advanced Materials,
2022; 2109930 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202109930 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220331185354.htm

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