Gradient Liquid-Like Interface Engineering for Durable Transparent Anti-Icing and Anti-Frosting Coatings

Ice and frost accumulation blocks light transmission and destabilizes outdoor photovoltaic and optoelectronic systems. Current passive anti-icing coatings still struggle to simultaneously achieve transparency, anti-icing performance, and long-term durability. Liquid-like coatings are promising for transparent anti-icing surfaces, yet their high interfacial mobility often comes at the expense of mechanical robustness. Here, we report a durable, transparent, gradient liquid-like coating fabricated by a one-step plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition process that addresses this trade-off through biomimetic gradient interface engineering. Hexamethyltrisiloxane is identified as an effective precursor for constructing a water-repellent, highly mobile liquid-like surface, while 1,3,5,7-tetramethylcyclotetrasiloxane forms a crosslinked supporting framework underneath. Interfacial characterizations using atomic force measurements reveal a more compliant and lower-friction near-surface liquid-like region with substantially reduced water pinning. The resulting coating delivers a rare combination of prolonged freezing delay, low ice adhesion, and outstanding durability over 100 icing/deicing cycles and 40 000 abrasion cycles, while preserving high transparency. When applied to solar cells, it effectively suppresses frosting and retains a power conversion efficiency of 10.01% under frosting, compared with 5.18% for the uncoated device. This work establishes gradient plasma-polymerized liquid-like interfaces as a practical strategy for durable transparent anti-icing and anti-frosting protection of outdoor photovoltaic and optoelectronic systems.