Durable ice-phobic material: Intrinsic self-healing organogels

Scientists report in intrinsic self-healing organogels based on dynamic polymer network with self-regulated secretion of liquid for anti-icing.

Ice formation and accretion in outdoor equipment is a serious issue and various organogel materials with lubrication surface layer have been used as ice-phobic materials for its low ice adhesion strength. Now, an intrinsic self-healing organogel based on dynamic polymer network with self-regulated secretion of surface liquid was prepared by adding silicone oil to reversible crosslinked network.

The prepared organogels present a faster self-healing process compared to material with no silicone oil that the scratch can be repaired within several hours in scratch test. Liquid secretion phenomenon was observed by recovery of water sliding angle after removing surface oil layer by water impacting, which confirmed the self-regulated secretion of inner liquid.

Durable ice-phobic material
Ice adhesion test shows that the organogel surface has a low ice adhesion strength (14.3 ± 1.6 KPa for PDMS-UI-80) during continuous icing/deicing process. The novel organogels provide a new idea to produce durable ice-phobic material with self-healing and self-regulated secretion properties.