Oil-infused silicone elastomers for barnacle and ice release: The current state of understanding

The adhesion of foulants and contaminants on surfaces is a well-known problem, particularly in the marine environment, which can potentially be solved by the use of an appropriate coating. Over the years, silicone elastomers have stood out for their release performance toward various foulants, allowing the cleaning of these surfaces using low stresses. The addition of non-reactive silicone fluids into silicone elastomers has often been presented as a way to further enhance their release properties. However, the mechanism behind this improvement remains quite unclear and the effect of fluids is largely unpredictable and always assessed experimentally. This review thus attempts to tackle this issue by identifying trends in experimental observations made on barnacle and ice release and proposing theoretical tools to explain and potentially model or predict them. With this objective in mind, this review is divided into three sections and will first describe the chemistry of silicone elastomers while highlighting the parameters that allow tuning the elastomer’s final properties. In the second section, the influence of the physical properties of the silicone elastomer (modulus, thickness, surface energy) on its barnacle and ice-release properties will be discussed. In this section and further, strong similarities will be highlighted between observations made for these foulants. Finally, reports of fluid-containing silicone elastomers will be scrutinized to examine the potential impact of parameters such as compatibility, molecular weight, surface tension, and crosslink density. During this discussion, the potential mechanisms behind the improvement of release properties will be highlighted and supported by theoretical considerations.