Synergistic Chemical Grafting–Plasticization Design of Durable Polymer Anti-/deicing Coatings with Coupled Photo-/Electrothermal Functionality

Durable anti/deicing coatings are urgently needed to prevent icing on critical components such as aircraft wing leading edges and wind-turbine blades, yet achieving long-term interfacial stability with reliable performance under harsh environments remains challenging. Herein, we report a polymer-based anti/deicing strategy based on hydroxyl-terminated styrene–butadiene–styrene (SBS). Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) segments are covalently grafted onto the SBS backbone to overcome the phase separation and migration issues typical of physical blending. Naphthenic oil, highly compatible with the SBS soft segments, is introduced at low loadings as an internal plasticizer to enhance mechanical robustness, surface wettability, and anti-icing behavior. The optimized Si-SBS/N30 coating exhibits an icing-delay time of 149 s at −15 °C and a low ice-adhesion strength of 21.03 ± 3.74 kPa, and retains stable performance after 30 icing/deicing cycles and under high-speed shear and water-impact tests. To address extreme conditions where passive protection alone may be insufficient, an integrated active–passive flexible composite film is constructed by coupling the Si-SBS/N30 top layer with an SBS/CNTs photo/electrothermal bottom layer. The resulting film achieves complete deicing within 150 s at −15 °C under a low power density of 0.05 W/cm2. Icing wind-tunnel tests further demonstrate an ice-free leading edge on a scaled wing model at −10 °C and 20 m/s. This work provides a scalable strategy and design framework for practical polymer-based anti/deicing coatings with long-term stability and low-energy active deicing capability.