Sturdy oil-impregnated polyurethane coatings with long-lasting and high-efficient deicing performance

Icing on exposed surfaces can cause serious problems for aircraft, radar, highways, etc. Passive anti-icing surfaces with delicate surface structures show ultralow ice adhesion strength, but they suffer from stability and durability issues when facing the complex icing environments. Here, we show that oil-impregnated polyurethane coatings (OIPs) with gradient distribution of nanoscale oil droplets along the coating depth simultaneously exhibit reduced ice adhesion strength, improved stability and durability, and enhanced substrate adhesion compared with polyurethane (PU) coatings. This heterogeneous structure of OIPs not only leads to the formation of a stable oil/PU composite surface on the top surface but also induces slip pulse at the ice/coating interface at a lower critical shear force, both of which greatly reduce the effective ice/coating contact area. The deicing efficiency of OIPs can last >130 days without degradation, covering the whole winter in most temperate-zone countries.