Thermodynamic method for establishment of relationship between icephobicity/superhydrophobicity and microstructure-Based on computing for adhesion work.

Superhydrophobic surfaces (SHS) have potential in solving the icing of aircraft, high-voltage overhead transmission lines, and other power network devices exposed to the air. For this reason, we wish to establish the relationship between microstructure and the adhesion work by thermodynamic method, also for analysis of the relationship between the hydrophobicity and icephobicity (or anti-icing). Therefore, respectively considering Cassie-Baxter and Wenzel states, such relationship was theoretically established based on one/two-step surface model, enlightened by natural and artificial SHS. Among it, how to obtain the adhesion work of icing per unit ice-solid interface is the key to this study. Followed by it, hydrothermal experiment, chemical deposition, and etching methods were performed to verify our theoretical results. •How to model for the SHS based on the natural and artificial SHS;•Computation for adhesion work (w_aw) per unit area of a water droplet-SHS interface;•Computation for adhesion work (w_ai) per unit area of a frozen water droplet-SHS interface;•Computation for reduced adhesion work (w_a2) after icing;•Hydrothermal experiment, chemical deposition and etching methods were used for validation of modeling.