Effective Icephobicity of Silicone Oil-Infused Oleamide-Polydimethylsiloxane with Enhanced Lubrication Lifetime

Icing and freezing phenomena in cold weather cause serious damage and economic losses. Thus, the development of a new effective icephobic surface with low ice adhesion strength (τ_ice) that can easily remove ice by wind or gravity force is essentially required. In this study, we propose a silicone oil-infused oleamide-polydimethylsiloxane (SiOP) by a facile fabrication method to achieve the effective icephobic performance with enhanced lubrication lifetime. The proposed SiOP is composed of a composite containing oleamide and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and silicone oil impregnated into the polymeric networks of the composite. Oleamide has been used as a slip agent in industries to reduce the skin friction of polymer films. The weight of the oil impregnated in SiOP is approximately three times higher than that of silicone oil-infused PDMS (SiPDMS). Different from the SiPDMS surface on which oil dries easily, a slippery oil layer is stably formed on the SiOP surface. The fabricated SiOP surfaces have very low τ_ice values of approximately 1 kPa, which is much smaller than that of the SiPDMS surface. The SiOP with an oleamide content of 5 wt % exhibits the smallest τ_ice value of 0.88 kPa. The fabricated SiOP surfaces maintain their superior icephobicity for more than 30 icing/deicing cycles, demonstrating their enhanced lubrication lifetime. In addition, the ice freezing time of a water droplet of 7 μL in volume is significantly delayed on the SiOP surface compared with that on the SiPDMS surface. The present results demonstrate that the proposed SiOP surface can help provide superior icephobic performance with the aid of the incorporation of oleamide into the conventional SiPDMS. The developed icephobic SiOP can be utilized to satisfactorily resolve the lubricant drought problem of conventional icephobic surfaces by empolying oleamide as a complementary slip agent.