Surface design strategies for mitigating ice and snow accretion

Surfaces that can passively mitigate ice accretion have recently attracted significant interest as an alternative to cost-intensive, active, de-icing technologies. After decades of research, several different approaches that can prevent the accretion of certain types of ice have been developed. The commercial applicability of these approaches, however, remains limited because of issues with coating durability, and because typically different kinds of icing typically require different mitigation strategies. This review classifies coatings that mitigate ice accretion into three categories based on their intended functions: surfaces that facilitate the detachment of accreted ice (ice shedding), surfaces that delay the accretion of ice (anti-icing), and surfaces that resist snow accretion (snow repellency). Next, we describe multiple coatings that have been developed thus far to achieve each of these functions, including their working principles, ease of scalability, and durability. We also discuss the current challenges associated with the laboratory testing and performance evaluation of different coatings.