Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Carbon Fiber Composite Surfaces and Evaluation of Their Anti-Icing Performance under Static and Impacting Droplets

Abstract

Ice accumulation presents a critical challenge in key engineering fields, such as aerospace and wind energy, where effective anti-icing is crucial for operational safety and efficiency. With the increasing demand for lightweight and high-strength materials, the utilization of carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) in these fields has grown. Given the promising potential of superhydrophobic surfaces in mitigating ice accumulation, the fabrication of such surfaces on CFRP substrates is of great importance. In this study, we fabricate hierarchical micro/nanostructures on CFRP substrates by integrating hydrophobic silica nanoparticles and a metal sieve template through a hot-pressing process. The resulting surface achieves exceptional superhydrophobicity with a static water contact angle of 155° and a sliding angle of 4° while conferring robust mechanical and chemical durability against abrasion and chemical etching. Static freezing experiments demonstrate the superior icing delay performance of the superhydrophobic CFRP surface through prolonging both the cooling time and the freezing time. Impacting droplets exhibit full rebound behavior within Weber numbers of 20–140 when the surface temperature is above −25 °C. The transition from full rebound to partial rebound and ultimate adhesion appears sequentially as the surface temperature decreases to −30 °C. These findings highlight the anti-icing performance of the superhydrophobic CFRP surface by effectively mitigating the ice formation of both static and impacting droplets.