Saltwater icephobicity: Influence of surface chemistry on saltwater icing

Most studies on icephobicity focus on ice formation with pure water. This manuscript presents studies to understand the influence of surfaces on saltwater ice nucleation and propagation. Experiments are conducted to quantify the influence of surface chemistry on saltwater ice nucleation and to understand the utility of superhydrophobic surfaces for saltwater icephobicity. These experiments are conducted with pure water and two sodium chloride solutions, which represent the salinity of seawater and briny produced water. It is seen that the presence of salt slows down the ice front propagation velocity significantly. Saltwater droplet impact dynamics on superhydrophobic surfaces are also different from pure water. Saltwater droplets retract more and a greater fraction of impacting liquid is repelled from the superhydrophobic surface. It is seen that the greater bounciness of saltwater droplets is a result of slower ice nucleation propagation kinetics. These experiments indicate that superhydrophobic surfaces will have better resistance to impact icing with saltwater than pure water and can remain useful at temperatures as low as -40 °C. Overall, this work is a starting point for further studies on heterogeneous nucleation in saltwater and serves as a bridge between the widely studied freshwater icephobic surfaces and saltwater-related applications.