Preparation and Properties of Negative Thermal Expansion Snow Melting and Ice Suppression Materials

To investigate the potential utilization of materials exhibiting negative thermal expansion in snow melting and ice suppression applications, an orthogonal test was conducted to ascertain the optimal ratio of effective constituents in said materials. The thermal expansion coefficient of the porous carrier for negative thermal expansion materials was examined, and modifications were made to the material used for snow melting and ice suppression. In conclusion, the researchers successfully developed snow melting and ice suppression materials with low thermal expansion that met the desired performance criteria. Furthermore, they conducted an analysis of the precipitation rate, as well as the snow melting and ice suppression effectiveness of these materials across various temperature ranges. According to the results, the thermal expansion coefficient of the carrier Z1 is positive and varies slightly in the temperature range of −30 °C~−10 °C. In the temperature range of −10 °C~0 °C, the thermal expansion coefficient is negative, and it has negative thermal expansion characteristics. At 0 °C~60 °C, its thermal expansion coefficient first increases and then decreases. In the low temperature stage, the amount of salt precipitation decreases with the decrease of temperature. In the conductivity test, the conductivity at 0 °C is greater than that at −5 °C, and much greater than that at 10 °C, the presence of a negative thermal expansion coefficient has been observed to exert a specific influence on the precipitation of materials used for snow melting and ice suppression. In addition, with the increase of temperature, the amount of salt precipitation increases. Whereas, when the temperature is higher than 35 °C, due to the thermal expansion characteristics of the carrier, the expansion of the volume of snow melting and ice suppression materials is comparatively limited, which results in a not greatly increased precipitation rate of the snow melting and ice suppression components compared with that at 35 °C.