Anti-Ice Coating Inspired by Ice Skating

Accumulation of ice to surfaces brings dangerous and costly problems to our daily life. In this paper, an anti‐ice coating inspired by ice skating is reported. Hyaluronic acid is used in the anti‐ice coating to form aqueous lubricating layer benefitting from its high water absorbing property. Dopamine, the main component of the mussel adhesive protein, is introduced to anchor the hyaluronic acid to the solid surfaces to render the coating applicable to all types of solid surfaces. At the same time it serves as the crosslinking agent for hyaluronic acid, thus the thickness of the water collecting film could be easily varied. Ice adhesion strength on surfaces coated with such kind of coating could be more than one order of magnitude lower than that of uncoated ones. The results indicate that this anti‐ice coating with the aqueous lubricating layer has great potential for fighting against icing problems. An anti‐ice coating with an aqueous lubricating layer, inspired by ice skating, combines the remarkable lubrication capability of hyaluronic acid (HA) with the excellent adhesive property of dopamine. The anti‐ice coating shows lower ice adhesion, which can apply to all types of solid surfaces and the thickness of the water collecting film could be easily varied.