Iceophobic Coatings

Article on Iceophobic Coating Research at the University of Michigan

March 25, 2016 Durability+Design Magazine – Research on a durable, inexpensive ice-repellent coating developed with airplanes, oil rigs, power lines and other industrial machinery or structures in mind is underway at the University of Michigan. Unlike many other coatings which reduce the accumulation of ice by imparting hydrophobic or hydrophilic characteristics to surfaces the material in this study changes the physical properties of the surface to weaken the bond between the surface and the ice. It works because ice will adhere very tenaciously to a hard surface and very weakly a rubbery one. The bond is so weak with the material developed by Anish Tuteja, associate professor of materials science and engineering, and his associates that gravity or even slight vibration or wind is all that is needed to break it.

Designing Durable Iceophobic Surfaces

This research article describes the research done at the University of Michigan to produce a coating that makes surfaces that readily shed ice. The coating isolates the ice from the hard metal or coating of the aircraft or infrastructure and provides a rubbery surface that the ice can only loosely adhere to. The bond is so weak that gravity, wind or slight vibrations provide sufficient force to break it.