Hydrophobic photothermal cilia for anti-icing/deicing and insight from its molecular dynamics simulation

Abstract

Photothermal materials are of great important for outdoor equipment in anti-icing/deicing due to their environmental friendliness, durability, and energy conservation. However, their deicing effectiveness is often limited by the photothermal conversion efficiency. In this study, we developed a hydrophobic photothermal surface covered by cilia including mesoporous shell-core Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles, which rapidly heated up within ∼100 s and achieved a significant temperature difference of ∼52 °C at a solar radiation intensity. For the composite polymer network of the cilia, we used molecular dynamic simulation to reveal that the siloxane chains within the ciliary structure penetrate and entangle with photothermal mesoporous nanoparticles. The mesoporous design of nanoparticles improved light absorption efficiency. As a result, under light irradiation at 0.03 W/cm², water remained unfrozen even at −10 °C. Moreover, we revealed the microscale mechanism of ice heterogeneous nucleation and growth on the surface of cilia via molecular dynamic simulation. This study provides valuable insights into anti-icing surface design, highlighting the potential applications of photothermal structure surfaces in de-icing technologies.