Stopping ice before it forms

摘要

Ice accumulation on aircraft and other structures can be dangerous, but de-icing procedures are expensive or environmentally unfriendly. Joanna Aizenberg at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and her collaborators show how ice could be prevented from forming on cold surfaces. Combining theoretical predictions with experiments, the authors fabricated a silicon surface with honeycomb-like microstructures and coated it with a water-repellent polymer film.