Summary Ice formation poses significant safety risks and causes substantial losses to infrastructure, energy systems, and transportation. In cold regions, temperatures commonly drop below −10°C, where ice adheres firmly to bare surfaces with ice adhesion strength τice much larger than 100 kPa. Existing de-icing approaches primarily rely on heating and surface coatings. Here, we report unprecedented ultralow ice adhesion (τice ≈ 0 kPa) on metals, low adhesion (τice ≈ 50 kPa) on glass, and high adhesion (τice > 100 kPa) on plastics when the temperature rapidly decreases from −10°C to −60°C. We observed interfacial ice cracks that are large on metals, intermediate on glass, and negligible on plastics. The differences are attributed to the distinct thermal and mechanical properties of each substrate. The rapid temperature drop induces strong thermo-mechanical coupling at the ice-substrate interface, which governs ice adhesion and promotes de-icing through strain-energy-driven crack formation. Our thermo-mechanical model accurately predicts the number and total length of ice cracks on each substrate, providing theoretical guidance for designing de-icing techniques based on deep cooling rather than conventional heating or surface coatings.
Sarma et al. (Fri,) studied this question.