Anti-icing performance of hydrophobic coatings on stainless steel surfaces

This study aims to prevent ice accumulation on the surface of drilling tools by investigating the effectiveness of hydrophobic coatings, which is one of the most promising methods to solve drilling difficulties in warm ice. Herein, four types of hydrophobic organic coatings that can be used on metal surfaces were tested to evaluate their anti-icing performance, service durability, and friction properties. All of them possess rough surfaces with microstructure characteristics such as pores, stripes, or micropapillae. They also exhibit hydrophobicity, with water contact angles of 101.6°, 100.0°, 103.1°, and 108.5°. They can significantly prolong the required freezing time of water droplets on their surfaces, effectively reduce ice adhesion, and decrease the friction between ice and their surface. The ice adhesion in the axial, tensile, and tangential directions can be reduced by 65.64%, 56.31%, and 72.11%, respectively, for the coating with silicon (Si)-based and fluorine compounds (coating-C) at –30 °C; while it can be reduced by 85.05%, 73.9%, and 94.2%, respectively, for the coatings with Si-based and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) compounds (coating-D). The two coatings mentioned above lose their anti-icing performance after 20 icing and de-icing cycles, and their hydrophobicity after 120 abrasion cycles under a load of 6 N.