“Ice falls off with just a gust of wind” ... Soongsil University develops ultrathin coating to prevent icing on aircraft and ships

[Financial News] Soongsil University said on the 3rd that a team led by Professor Park Seong-hun of its Department of Mechanical Engineering had developed next-generation de-icing coating technology that allows ice to shed easily while remaining firmly attached to the surface of an object. Compared with ordinary metal surfaces, the coating reduces ice adhesion by about 98.6%, allowing ice to be removed with only about one-seventieth of the force previously required. It also maintains excellent performance at thicknesses dozens of times thinner than a human hair.
In winter, ice forming on aircraft, wind turbines and autonomous vehicle sensors can lead directly to equipment failures and safety accidents. Until now, the main approaches have been to melt the ice with electric heaters or scrape it off mechanically, but these methods consume a lot of power and are costly to maintain. Existing coatings designed to prevent ice from sticking also have limitations: their performance can decline as they become thinner, or they can peel off easily.
The research team addressed this problem using a special silicone material (polyborosiloxane) whose molecular bonds can break and then reconnect. The coating was designed so that when an external force is applied, its molecular structure moves flexibly and disperses the force. As a result, ice sheds easily with just wind or slight vibrations, while the coating itself remains firmly attached to the underlying material.
Tests showed that the new coating had about nine times the adhesion strength of conventional silicone coatings and demonstrated reliable durability in repeated friction and tape-peel tests. It can also be made through simple processes such as spraying or dipping in liquid, making it immediately applicable to large industrial facilities and complex structures.
Professor Park Seong-hun said, “We have achieved both de-icing performance and durability while overcoming the limitation of performance declining with reduced thickness.” He added, “We will expand its applications from polar vessels and aircraft to household appliances and industrial heat exchangers, and develop it into a practical technology.”
Researcher Nam Geon-u participated in the study as its first author, and the findings were published in the international journal Nature Communications.


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