During the winter, airports are busy. When airplanes need to be dowsed with thousands of gallons of deicing fluids, delays get longer as passengers wait to board. As soon as the plane takes off, most of the liquid is gone from the aircraft and ends up in the water.
An attempt to make a more efficient product immune to ice for such demanding industries and consumers has been made by an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and a student. They think it could benefit other industries.
The lifetime of the cryoprotectants was questioned and new ways to increase their effectivity were looked at. We wanted to make alternatives that can last longer while being more biofriendly. We ended up doing that.
The researchers developed an extensive family of more than 80 anti-freezing coating, which can be classified as polymeric solutions, emulsions, creams and gels. The formula can be applied to any industrial surface, without the need for preconditioning or expensive surface treatments.
Our coating is 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.
Their work is reported in an Advanced Materials article.
The family of phase change material-based formulations and multifunctional coating can tailor solid foulant adhesion on functional surfaces, ranging from ice tobacteria, regardless of their inherent material structure and chemistry. This was created by regulating how chemicals leave the material system and creating a lubricating surface layer that is both slippery and non-freezing in nature.
The transparent anti-freezing gels are critical for applications like traffic signals, runway lights, and automotive windshields.
Imagine coating your smartwatch with our gel that can prevent ice accretion in the chilly negatives while simultaneously preventing anybacteria.
Since our anti-icing sprays are bio-friendly and anti-bacterial, we think there is a chance to use them in agriculture to prevent crops from being ruined by severe frost.
The Office of Technology Management at the University of Illinois has filed a worldwide patent application for Compositions and Methods for Inhibiting Ice Formation on Surfaces.
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.
Two members of the research group collaborated with Chatterjee.
More information: Rukmava Chatterjee et al, A family of frost‐resistant and icephobic coatings, Advanced Materials (2022). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202109930 Journal information: Advanced Materials Citation: Scientists develop environmentally safe, frost-resistant coatings (2022, April 1) retrieved 1 April 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-04-scientists-environmentally-safe-frost-resistant-coatings.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
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