UIC-2018-015 – A Novel anti-icing technology

Ice formation on surfaces adversely affects numerous energy and transportation industries–airplanes, wind turbines, buildings are just a few examples—causing substantial losses each year in the US alone The majority of recent studies have focused on developing super hydrophobic surfaces that can rapidly shed water droplets before they freeze. However, such surfaces are notoriously susceptible to failures in high humidity conditions, especially under below freezing conditions Lubricant-infused surfaces have been used to overcome some of these challenges; however, they are prone to failure because of lubricant depletion. Delaying or preventing icing on intrinsically hydrophilic surfaces still remains a huge challenge. UIC researchers have developed a novel technology to passively delay freezing of droplets under high humidity and frigid surface temperature conditions, using a class of readily available phase change materials (PCMs) with melting points between 0 °C to 20 °C. PCM’s work by trapping the latent heat released during the condensation of water. Droplets condensing on the solidified form of such PCMs exhibit extraordinary freezing delay (as long as 4 days) compared to conventional surfaces – even at temperatures below freezing. Mark Krivchenia krivchen@otm.uic.edu (312) 996-6626