Superhydrophobic ice-phobic zinc surfaces

Zinc plating of steel is widely used in many industrial fields to create a protective layer from corrosion and environmental attack, but suffers from wetting and icing issues. This work presents a simple and scalable process to obtain superhydrophobic and ice-phobic zinc surfaces, prepared by growing ZnO Nanorods in a short (<30’) hydrothermal treatment at 90 °C. The further coating with stearic acid or fluoroalkylsilane leads to surfaces with static contact angles higher than 165° and tilting angles as low as 1°. A clear correlation was found between wettability and ice adhesion and excellent ice-phobic performances were shown for all the superhydrophobic samples reaching shear stress values lower than 10 kPa. Durability was assessed and samples maintain part of their properties after 30 days of immersion in wet chemicals. An easy recovery process can further enhance the ice-phobicity.