A Yeast-Fermented Porous Coating for Anti-Icing Enabled by Photothermal Trapping and Crack Promotion

Photothermal anti-icing surfaces harness solar energy for efficient deicing and hold promise for preventing ice accretion. However, under prolonged severe conditions, ice buildup is inevitable, making low ice adhesion a critical safeguard for effective removal. Here, we report a yeast-fermented porous coating (YFPC) that integrates strong photothermal performance with interfacial crack promotion to overcome these limitations. The coating is fabricated scalably in a single step by spraying a silicone/carbon nanoparticles (CNPs)/yeast emulsion: CNPs assemble at droplet interfaces to generate a hierarchical light-trapping texture, while yeast fermentation forms the porous structure. This design endows the YFPC with exceptional photothermal performance, demonstrating a 55 °C temperature increase under one-sun irradiation. Crucially, the porous structure within the coating amplifies stress heterogeneity at the ice-coating interface, which triggers multiple microcracks along the adhesive interface, enabling rapid ice detachment with minimal force. By combining efficient solar-driven heating with crack-assisted ice release in a scalable fabrication process, this work establishes a new strategy for high-performance anti-icing coatings.