Hydrogels as Durable Anti-Icing Coatings Inhibit and Delay Ice Nucleation

The accumulation of ice on surfaces brings dangerous and costly problems to our daily life. Thus, it would be desirable to design anti-icing coatings for various surfaces. We report a durable anti-icing coating based on mussel-inspired chemistry, which is enabled via fabricating a liquid water layer, achieved by modifying solid substrates with the highly water absorbing property of sodium alginate. Dopamine, the main component of the mussel adhesive protein, is introduced to anchor the sodium alginate in order to render the coating applicable to all types of solid surfaces. Simultaneously, it serves as the cross-linking agent for sodium alginate; thus, the cross-linking degree of the coatings could be easily varied. The non-freezable and freezable water in the coatings with different cross-link degrees all remain liquid-like at subzero conditions and synergistically fulfill the aim of decreasing the temperature of ice nucleation. These anti-icing coatings display excellent stability even under harsh conditions. Furthermore, these coatings can be applied to almost all types of solid surfaces and have great promise in practical applications.