Effect of Morphology of Nano-Structured Surfaces on Anti-Icing Performance

Abstract

Droplets bouncing off cold surfaces before being frozen is one way to achieve anti-icing, in which process superhydrophobic surfaces have been proven to play an important role. By using template-assisted method, three types of copper nanowired superhydrophobic surfaces (NSHSs) with mainly two morphologies (aggregated and upright) are fabricated. CuO nanograssed superhydrophobic surface (SHS) and copper smooth hydrophobic surface (HS) are also fabricated as a comparison. Compared with smooth HS and nanograssed SHS, all NSHSs exhibit better performance in repelling impacting droplet. In detail, on three types of NSHSs with temperatures ranging from 20 °C to −20 °C, impacting droplets can totally rebound. Among the three types, nanowires aggregated most exhibit the best water-repellency performance. The different performances among the five surfaces are due to surface temperature and surface morphology parameters, including micro/nano-size and surface roughness.