Reducing ice accumulation on aluminum conductor by applying superhydrophobic coating

Ice and snow accretion on transmission lines is a severe problem for power network and it can cause insulator flashover, wire breakage and tower falling down et al. Solutions are needed to reduce or eliminate ice accumulation on transmissions lines. In the paper, an excellent superhydrophobic surface was prepared on aluminum conductor by constructing a micronanoscale roughness on the surface and then coated with an ultrathin fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) coating. Water droplet can not stably stay on the resulted superhydrophobic aluminum surface and rolled off the surface quickly (about 0.5 s). The resulted superhydrophobic aluminum surface exhibited excellent characteristic of restraining ice accretion and only partial edge of the surface was covered by ice crystal when it was sprayed by supercooled water in a low temperature environment. Compared with the superhydrophobic aluminum surface, the plain aluminum surface coated with the same FAS coating was covered by a compact ice layer quickly when it was sprayed in the same environment.