ABSTRACT Solar thermal superhydrophobic surfaces hold immense potential in anti‐icing/deicing applications. However, complex fabrication processes, high cost, poor durability, and scalability limit their practical applications. Inspired by the sandpaper, a scalable and robust solar thermal superhydrophobic surface was fabricated using electrostatic sanding for durable anti‐icing/deicing. The multi‐scale robust structure was fabricated by electrostatic sanding silicon carbide microparticles into an epoxy resin layer to act as “armor” protector, followed by spray‐coating fluorinated titanium nitride nanoparticles to improve solar thermal performance, resulting in high‐water contact angle (CA) of 164.0 ± 1.6°, low‐water sliding angle (SA) of 1.6 ± 0.5°, and high solar absorptance of 0.988. The synergistic effect of superhydrophobicity and solar thermal performance endowed the designed multi‐scale surface with durable anti‐icing/deicing performance, enabling ice or frost melting rapidly via solar heating and subsequent removal due to high CA and low SA. In addition, the multi‐scale structure enabled the droplet to recover the Cassie–Baxter state (to ∼ 159°) after melting, which also demonstrated excellent durability along with mechanical, thermal, and chemical stability. The low cost and scalability of the designed surface on various substrates contribute to its practical applications in harsh environments based on photonics and interface engineering.
Yao et al. (Sun,) studied this question.