Superhydrophobic coatings using nanomaterials for anti-frost applications – review

Frost formation and accretion on various outdoor structures like aircraft, wind turbines, heat exchanger coils etc. as well as on glass doors of indoor refrigerators is a serious issue as it presents economic as well as safety challenges. Most of the research done on antifrost coatings is based on the theme of making the surface super hydrophobic (contact angle $>$150$^\circ$, Sliding angle $<$10$^\circ$) mimicking a lotus leaf which provides low or zero ice adhesion. Nanomaterials have played a significant role in such coatings as they help in tuning the surface properties which are surface roughness and surface energy. In this paper, we have tried to investigate why all superhydrophobic surfaces may not be ice-phobic and how nanomaterials improve super hydrophobicity of the surface, in turn, making them anti-frosting. This paper is a detailed study of anti-frosting strategies based on nanosystems which have been developed to date.