Nanoporous superhydrophobic coatings via electrophoretic deposition for stable anti-icing

Developing stable superhydrophobic anti-icing coatings is essential for improving the efficiency and reliability of finned heat exchangers. Herein, we propose a constant-voltage electrophoretic deposition strategy based on tube-sphere hybrid building blocks to construct hierarchical nanoporous superhydrophobic coatings on fin surfaces. Driven by an electric field, the composite particles are uniformly deposited, forming continuous coatings with tunable thickness. The interwoven tube-sphere architecture creates a hierarchical nanoporous surface with abundant interparticle voids and inter-tubular pores, which increases the capillary pressure barrier against liquid impalement and suppresses condensate penetration. After 60 icing-deicing cycles at -15 °C, the coating maintains a low ice adhesion strength of 4.1 kPa, demonstrating excellent anti-icing durability. This method combines structural controllability with adaptability to complex substrates, offering a feasible route for scalable low-temperature-stable superhydrophobic anti-icing coatings on finned heat exchangers.