The Anti/Deicing Performance of the Low Interfacial Toughness Coating Is Enhanced: Induced Ice Crack Generation and Its Extension

The low interfacial toughness of the material surface is important for crack initiation and expansion of the ice layer as it remains an effective method for large-scale deicing. However, there are challenges, such as a large critical icing size and incomplete shedding of the ice layer. Adjusting the interfacial forces to make the ice more prone to cracking, expanding, and shedding is advantageous in addressing the problem of anti-icing failure in materials with low interfacial toughness. Therefore, we propose a deicing strategy that combines porous PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) coatings with low interfacial toughness and piezoelectric vibration. A series of hydrophobic porous PDMS coatings with different porosities were prepared on the surface of an aluminum alloy substrate through curing and phase separation. The elastic modulus of the coatings decreased from 1465 to 509 kPa as the coating porosity increased, revealing the mechanism behind the improvement in mechanical properties. The key to promoting ice fracture on porous PDMS coatings lies in the synergistic effect of the out-of-plane shear stress and microcracks at the solid–ice interface. This work focuses on exploring the characteristics of interfacial forces by combining the intrinsic mechanical properties of coatings with external forces, providing new insights for designing low interfacial toughness anti-icing materials.