A novel durable anti-icing slippery surfaces with dendritic porous structure

In recent years, the lubricant depletion in slippery lubricant-infused porous surface (SLIPS) has been widely concerned, which limits its application in anti-icing. The lubricant stability is determined by three main factors including lubricant storage, depletion, and self-healing rate after depletion. However, many studies only consider one or two factors and there is a lack of systematic research on the anti-icing durability of the improved SLIPS. Herein, considering the “storage-depletion-healing” of the lubricant, a dendritic porous structure was fabricated, and the pore depth ratio and surface porosity were optimized. Additionally, the anti-icing durability of the dendritic slippery surface (Y-SLIPS) was investigated. The results show that the optimal pore depth ratio (upper pore to lower pore) and surface porosity are 1:2 and 66%, respectively. Compared to the traditional slippery surface (I-SLIPS), the Y-SLIPS has better anti-icing durability in frost and icing environment. The Y-SLIPS exceeds 20 kPa at the 140th frosting/defrosting cycle, while the I-SLIPS reaches this value at the 100th cycle. When maintaining extremely low ice-adhesion strength, the Y-SLIPS can withstand 190 icing/deicing cycles, far more than that of the I-SLIPS. The optimal dendritic porous structure further improves the anti-icing durability of the slippery surfaces, which lays the foundation for its anti-icing application.