Radio-frequency transparent carbon nanotube electrothermal film for radome de-icing application

As an aircraft faces a hostile environment during the flight, ice can easily form on the surface, especially on a radome, which is a dielectric housing that protects the radar system. Communication disruption and change in aerodynamic shape features are common problems that ice accumulation causes, which are responsible for significant performance degradation. Even though several de-icing methods have shown exceptional heating performance, obtaining radio-frequency (RF) transparency still remains challenging. Therefore, a new de-icing strategy is necessary to effectively remove ice without affecting the communication system. In this study, we fabricated a highly RF transparent electrothermal film based on carbon nanotube (CNT) by a simple spin-coating method and found that the decreased sheet resistance of the film associated with an increase in CNT content resulted in deterioration of RF transmission despite improved heating performance. In particular, the CNT film with optimized characteristics was prepared, which exhibited both high RF transmittance (>80% in the given frequency range) and good heating performance (160 °C at 80 V). Effective de-icing capability was also demonstrated, which confirmed that CNT-based electrothermal films have great promise for practical application to radomes with improved operational efficiency and less weight burden for the aircraft.