Now, ice won’t stick
A team of researchers from Harvard University has invented a way to keep metal surface free of ice and frost. The treated surfaces quickly shed even tiny, incipient condensation droplets or frost, simply through gravity. The technology prevents ice sheets from developing on surfaces, and ice that is present slides off effortlessly. The discovery, published online as a manuscript in the journal ACS Nano on June 10, has direct implications for a wide range of metal surfaces, such as those used in aircraft, refrigeration systems, wind turbines, marine vessels, and construction. The group, led by Joanna Aizenberg, Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and a core faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, previously introduced the idea that it was possible to create a surface that prevented ice by using coatings inspired by the water-repellent lotus...