New coating materials keep cars away from snow and ice hazards

China Coatings Online News:
believe that everyone has ever removed broken ice from the windshield, or nervously watched the plane de-icing. Watch out! Researchers at Colorado State University have developed an anti-ice coating that works better than the best de-icing products possible today. Led by Arun Kota, an assistant professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering, researchers have created an environmentally friendly, inexpensive and long-lasting coating that prevents cars, ships, aircraft and wires from freezing.
the innovation is a gel-based soft coating made from PDMS (polydymethylsiloxane), a polysilioxane polymer gel that has a wide range of uses in industry, according to a paper published by researchers in the journal Materials Chemistry. Their results were obtained by carefully analyzing the adhesion of ice.
performance measurement of the de-icing coating is called ice adhesion strength - the shear stress required to remove ice from the surface in kPa. The Kota team showed that the ice adhesion strength of its coating was about 5 kPa. In contrast, other soft-coated ices on the market have a bonding strength of about 40 kPa (the lower the better). Other types of de-icing coatings made from rigid materials such as Teflon are typically about 100 kPa.
was sprayed before the icy plane took off? It's a liquid de-icing agent, including glycol or propylene glycol, and they work well. Spraying salt or glycol is the most commonly used negative de-icing technique today. According to the EPA, more than 20 million gallons of de-icing chemicals are used by the aviation industry alone each year. But these liquid products can seep into groundwater, causing environmental problems. And they have to use it over and over again.
Kota points out that the de-icing coating is different from the anti-ice coating. Anti-ice agent is to delay the formation of ice; De-icing, on the other hand, helps to remove ice easily when it forms and adheres to the surface.
CSU breakthrough is an environmentally friendly, high-performance solution that prevents ice from sticking to our windshields without the use of toxic liquid de-icing devices. It will be used as a more permanent protective coating. "We think there's a lot of commercial potential in this," Kota said. "
。