Participant: Dayong Chen
Collaboration with Gareth McKinley, MIT MechE
The first subproject builds on a previous study in the group in which a correlation was developed to predict solid ice adhesion strength on a particular surface based on the easily-measured practical work of adhesion of liquid water on that same surface (Meuler et al ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 11, 3100 (2010). Our recent work has revealed that it is possible to escape the constraints of this correlation using switchable (hydrophobic to hydrophilic) surfaces that produce an ultrathin slip layer of non-freezing bound water molecules between the substrate and the accreted ice. Successful low Tg polymer coatings include small amounts (less than 3%) of amphiphilic copolymers such as a polysiloxane-polyethylene oxide block copolymer. Results have been disclosed in a provisional Patent Application No.XX/YYYYYY, March 23, 2016
