Transparent Photothermal Superhydrophobic Coating With Structured Micrometer-Scale Regular Arrays for Anti-/De-Icing

Photothermal superhydrophobic coatings hold great promise for anti-icing applications. However, insufficient transparency and poor durability are the main factors limiting their practical application. To address these challenges, we have designed a transparent photothermal superhydrophobic coating that primarily offers two advantages: first, a regular array structure is constructed on the surface to enhance durability; and second, selective absorption of the solar spectrum is employed to achieve efficient photothermal conversion. Under one standard solar irradiation (1-sun), the coating exhibits a temperature rise of 40.17°C while maintaining a visible‑light transmittance of 73.57%. At -15°C, the coating achieves a delayed ice time of 653 s, while its de-icing and de-frosting times reach 337 and 155 s, respectively. Notably, after 50 de-icing cycles, the coating still maintains a high contact angle (152°) and a low sliding angle (8°). These properties are attributed to the synergistic interaction between the micrometer-scale regular structure on the coating surface and its spectrally selective absorption capability. This study provides a feasible strategy for developing high-performance transparent anti-icing and de-icing coatings.