Ice adhesion on the surface of PDMS/nano-silica hybrid super-hydrophobic coating

Abstract

Small ice adhesion surface is always desirable for high voltage overhead transmission line, which is favorable for ice shedding with very small external force acting. This paper studies the tensile strength and the shear strength respectively of ice on the surface of PDMS/nano-silica hybrid super-hydrophobic coating, which keeps average water contact angle (CA) larger than 150° and water slidding angle (SA) smaller than 5°. Compared with bare glass surface and the surface coated with Room Temperature Vulcanization Silicone (RTV), the PDMS/nano-silica hybrid super-hydrophobic surface did decrease ice adhesion strength obviously, its tensile ice adhesion strength is 325.5 times and 27.7 times lower than the bare samples and the surface coated with RTV respectively, and its shear ice adhesion strength is even 2149 times and 139.6 times lower than the bare samples and the surface coated with RTV respectively.