Transparent Liquid-like Slippery Coating with Excellent Photothermal Performance and Durability for Anti-/De-Icing Applications

Transparent photothermal coatings are increasingly important in various fields, including solar panels, front windshields, and aircraft windows, to prevent icing, which would otherwise affect their efficiency and safety. However, past research on photothermal materials has overly focused on achieving high photothermal performance at the expense of basic transparency. Meanwhile, superhydrophobic surfaces and slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces have been found to have poor durability as anti-icing materials, thereby limiting their practical applications. In this work, we prepared a liquid-like anti/deicing coating with excellent transparency by utilizing polybutadiene (PB), sulfhydryl-functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS), and hydroxyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to construct a semi-interpenetrating cross-linked network and adding nigrosin dye with full spectrum absorption and benzotriazole (BTA) with UV-selective absorption as photothermal components. Liquid-like properties enable extremely low surface ice adhesion (∼13 kPa). Compared with bare glass, the coating freezes three times longer, greatly improving the anti-icing performance. Furthermore, the coating can have excellent photothermal performance while maintaining high transparency. This unique combination of properties facilitates its application of the coating in some anti/deicing scenarios where transparency is required, and the excellent durability and antifouling properties make it possible for long-term use. Such a coating can be manufactured on metal, plastic, wood, and other substrates by a simple drop coating and UV curing method.