Multifunctional superhydrophobic composite film with icing monitoring and anti-icing/deicing performance

Icing can cause damage to outdoor equipment such as airplanes, wind turbine blades and power lines, which poses potential safety hazards. Recently, electrothermal superhydrophobic composite film with the synergistic effect of anti-icing and deicing properties can effectively hinder the formation and accumulation of ice. However, these superhydrophobic composite films have no icing condition monitoring property, which is critical to improve deicing efficiency and reduce energy consumption. In this paper, we have designed a multifunctional superhydrophobic composite film using the combination of laser ablation and spraying method, which exhibits excellent comprehensive anti-icing, deicing and icing monitoring properties. The experimental results demonstrated the icing delay time of the film reached 4.0 min at −20 °C. Meanwhile, taking advantage of the outstanding electrothermal effects of the laser induced graphene/carbon nanotubes (LIG/CNTs) composite conductive network, with DC voltage (5 V) excitation, the film temperature rapidly rose from −20 °C to 107 °C in 90 s, thereby effectively removing the ice. More importantly, due to the temperature sensing performance of the LIG/CNTs composite conductive network, it could monitor whole icing and deicing process of droplet with different volumes and temperatures in real time through the change of film resistance. Therefore, the comprehensive anti-icing, deicing and ice monitoring properties allowed it to effectively reduce icing hazards.