Recent advancements in electro-thermal anti-/de-icing materials

Icing is a common phenomenon in daily life, but the formation and accumulation of ice on critical surfaces can lead to catastrophic failures, economic losses, and safety issues. It is essential to implement effective anti-/de-icing strategies to solve these problems. Electro-thermal anti-/de-icing is a typical method and widely utilized in different engineering areas but still faces challenges like inefficiency, high energy cost, and poor temperature uniformity. Increasing studies have focused on design and fabrication of new electro-thermal materials with better performance for anti-/de-icing. This review summarizes recent advancements and applications of electro-thermal anti-/de-icing materials. First of all, the mechanism of electro-thermal anti-/de-icing is briefly presented. Subsequently, various electro-thermal anti-/de-icing materials are introduced according to the material types, i.e., carbonaceous materials, metallic materials, and other materials. Furthermore, advances in the application of electro-thermal anti-/de-icing materials in aircraft, electric transmission-lines, wind power generation equipment and others are provided. To end, we summarize potential challenges and future perspectives in the design and fabrication of electro-thermal anti-/de-icing materials.