A few days ago, the team of Professor Zhang Lei from the School of Chemical Engineering of Tianjin University successfully developed a "super coating". This new type of coating can put on "cold-proof clothing" for instruments and equipment in outdoor, high-altitude, and high-cold environments, achieving high efficiency, low energy consumption, and no damage to ice and deicing. Related results have been published in the international authoritative journal "Journal of Chemical Engineering".
In the high-altitude and high-cold environment, icing on the surface of equipment such as airplanes and transmission lines often causes major economic losses and even catastrophic accidents. The current mainstream deicing methods include electric deicing, hot air deicing, mechanical deicing and chemical deicing. These methods have low efficiency and high energy consumption, and may even corrode the equipment itself and cause damage to the environment. How to prepare a high-efficiency, energy-saving, environmentally friendly anti-deicing coating suitable for high-altitude and high-cold environments has become an important challenge for scientists.
The team of Professor Zhang Lei of Tianjin University used a new type of amphiphilic material combined with photothermal carbon fiber to develop a "super coating" that uses sunlight to generate heat. The key to the excellent performance of the coating lies in the organic fusion of hydrophilic materials and low-surface materials that can reduce the freezing point with photothermal carbon fibers, which can not only effectively prevent the formation of ice, absorb sunlight to produce heat and deicing, but also reduce the surface of the coating. The ice adhesion force can make the ice accumulate under the sunlight, only rely on wind, gravity and other natural conditions to easily remove.
"The surface temperature of the new coating can reach 46°C under sunlight. The surface in contact with the ice heats up and melts the ice, which greatly reduces the ice adhesion, and the ice shell can easily fall off under the action of gravity." According to the young teacher of the R&D team Yang Jing said, "Experimental results show that this new type of coating has good stability, can withstand the erosion of acid rain and falling sand, and is expected to become the'protector' of advanced instruments and equipment in high altitude and cold environments."