Prompting Interfacial Elastic Instability for Effective and Durable Icephobic Surfaces

Icephobic surfaces offer a passive protection strategy against icing hazards in industrial applications. However, the improvement of surface icephobicity is normally accompanied by a compromise in mechanical properties and restrains the practical application of current icephobic surfaces/materials. Here, a generic strategy for icephobic material design is reported to address this conflict through interfacial elastic instability prompted by the synergistic integration of fibrous construction (FC) frameworks with icephobic polymers. The FC-based material structures could induce periodically localised/amplified stress at the ice/solid interface, leading to interfacial elastic instability and facilitating effective ice detachment. Low ice adhesion strength is achieved, while the tensile strength of the materials is enhanced by 19 times more than the polymer matrix due to the reinforcement from the FC frameworks. Based on the serrated features of the shear forces and numerically simulated interfacial stress distribution, a new theoretical model is established to interpret the nature of interfacial elastic instability and undulatory interfacial stress. This work provides fundamental insights for designing high-performance icephobic materials that transcend traditional performance trade-offs, advancing both surface science and materials for practical ice mitigation.