Ice is no match for new coating

Researchers led by Arun Kota, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, have created an environmentally friendly, inexpensive, long-lasting coating that could keep everything from cars and ships to planes and power lines ice-free.

Their creation is a gel-based coating made out of PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane), a silicone polymer gel that is widely used. Their experiments were supported by careful analysis of ice adhesion mechanics and cohesion of ice on substance surfaces.

Kota says, "We think there is significant commercial potential here,". And indeed there is due to the success of their creation. The measurement used to define de-icing coatings is called ice adhesion strength, it's the strength needed to remove ice from a surface. It's measured in kilopascals (kPa). Kota's group demonstrated ice adhesion strength for their coating of about 5 kPa (lower is better). This is incredibly better than anything on the market as of right now. In today's market, soft coatings have ice adhesion strength of about 40 kPa. Other types of de-icing coatings made of rigid materials like Teflon typically have 100 kPa.

Liquid de-icers, including ethylene glycol or propylene glycol, also work pretty well. Spraying salts or glycols is the most common passive de-icing technique used today and according to the EPA, more than 20 million gallons of de-icing chemicals are used per year by the aviation industry alone. But these liquid products leek into groundwater, causing environmental issues. Moreover, they have to be applied over and over again. There is a distinct difference between anti-icers that delay the formation of ice and de-icers that make removal of ice easier, after the ice has already formed and stuck to a surface.

The CSU breakthrough is an environmentally friendly, high-performance solution that could rid us of toxic liquid de-icers and keep ice from sticking to our windshields. It would be applied as a more permanent protective coating. Hopefully more work will be done in the future to better the research of de-icing techniques.