A Study on Fabrication and Property of Icephobic Materials Using Hydrophobic Fumed Silica

In this work, we fabricated hydrophobic anti-freezing materials using room temperature vulcanized (RTV) silicone rubber and hydrophobic fumed silica, and investigated the chemical and corrosion properties of the coated materials with varying amounts of hydrophobic fumed silica. As the amount of the hydrophobic fumed silica increased, the surface texture became rough and the water repellency increased. With the addition of 30 wt% hydrophobic fumed silica, the coated materials exhibited superhydrophobic characteristics, indicating superior anti-icing performance by prohibiting nucleation of ice. On the other hand, hydrophobic material showed better de-icing performance than the superhy-drophobic one due to a relatively smaller surface roughness As compared with AA 6061 aluminum alloy, both developed hydrophobic and superhydrophobic coated materials improved corrosion resistance, and the degradation of the surface morphology, wettability and de-icing properties was not significant after the salt spray test. The developed coated materials enhanced industrial applicability as anti-freezing materials used in transmission line.