Anti-Icing Performance of Superhydrophobic Surface with Square-Ring Structure Prepared by Nanosecond Laser

Abstract

Herein, a square-ring structure array is constructed on an aluminum alloy surface using a nanosecond laser-processing method. A durable and anti-icing superhydrophobic surface is obtained after heating treatment. The surface properties of the square-ring structure and the icing behavior of the surface are investigated. Results show that the surfaces of the square-ring structure fabricated in two different sizes display a high contact angle of 152.3° and 154.3° and a low sliding angle of 3.3° and 2.1° at a temperature of 15 °C, and even at −15 °C the surface still displays low adhesion, with a sliding angle lower than 6.3°, which could effectively make the water droplet slide away from the surface before freezing. The anti-icing performance experiment shows that the surface with the square-ring structure has good anti-icing performance, with the icing delay time greater than 700 s, and the icing quantity is greatly reduced at the temperature of −15 °C. Finally, the durability experiment shows that both the wettability and the icing delay time performance of the superhydrophobic surface with the newly fabricated square-ring structure display good stability.