Anti-/deicing membranes with damage detection and fast healing

Abstract

Flexible membrane with good anti-wettability under giant deformation and fast healing will largely extend its adaptability and life span in anti-/deicing application. A flexible membrane with significant dynamic water repellency and photo-/electro-responsive healing capability is reported, fabricated by combining the covalent grafting of fluorosilane to carbon black (F-CB) with the optimized ablation difference between thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) matrix and F-CB. A rolling angle of below 5° is remained after either being stretching to 1000% strain or 2000 cycles of tensile tests at 400% strain. More importantly, multi-scale cracks on the membrane can be diagnosed and repaired in real-time; the healing efficiency reaches above 99% within 90 s even if completely fractured under the effect of both solar irradiation of 0.1 W cm−2 and applied voltage of 20 V; and all-weather anti-/deicing has the performance of an icing delay time of 323 s and an ice adhesion strength of <40 kPa, a sharp contrast to the 18 s and 1090 kPa, respectively, for bare metal surface. This work endows anti-icing membrane with the ability of damage detection and cyclic healing, highly demanded in outdoor anti-/deicing application that involve inevitable mechanical damages.