Anti-icing epoxy resin surface modified by spray coating of PTFE Teflon particles for wind turbine blades

Epoxy resins are widely used for the outer surface of wind turbine blades and many other engineering applications. An anti-icing epoxy resin surface was generated by a spray coating of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE; commonly known as Teflon) nanoparticles. The Teflon particles with a mean diameter of 300 nm were dispersed in acetone to achieve 5 % weight fraction. The static contact angle and the roll-off angle for deionized water were measured at 154° and below 2° respectively. The ice detachment strength at the temperature of −10 °C and 16 % relative humidity was approximately 30 kPa on average, which was about 2.5 % of the ice detachment strength of an aluminum substrate and was about 20 % of the ice adhesion strength of plain epoxy. This spray coating method has no limit on the application coverage surface area. To demonstrate the scalability of this coating method, a 101.6 mm by 101.6 mm aluminum surface was successfully produced in the laboratory and demonstrated the same superhydrophobic and icephobic surface characteristics as the smaller test surfaces.