Preparation of SiO₂ resin coating with superhydrophobic wettability and anti-icing behavior analysis

Among different types of anti-icing coatings, superhydrophobic surfaces have attracted extensive attention due to their excellent water repellency and low thermal conductivity. We report facile spraying time tuning to optimize the superhydrophobic (SHP) surface coating fabrication by a one-step spraying method of mixing SiO₂ nanoparticles with epoxy resin (EP), polyamide resin (PAI), and HFTMS. The wettability performance was optimized by adjusting spraying time from 0 s to 25 s to control surface morphology by adjusting surface morphology and line roughness. With spraying time of 20 s, SiO₂ molecular clusters on the superhydrophobic surface showed a maximum water contact angle (WCA) of 160.4° ± 1.3° and a sliding angle (SA) of 4.1° ± 1.0°. What's more, the effect of the coatings' icing behavior were studied by icing heat conduction; SHP-20 delayed the icing time for 410 s at -15 °C, and the icing performance of SHP-20 also declined with the decrease of temperature to -9 °C, -12 °C, -15 °C, and -18 °C. The WCA of SHP-20 can remain above 140.9° ± 1.8° after 40 abrasive 1000# sandpaper wear cycles. The results also provide a basis for the preparation of SHP and anti-icing characteristics.