In Situ Internal Strengthened Carbon Nanotube Carpets on Graphene for Anti-Icing Application

Oriented carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with high stiffness, excellent thermal/electrical properties, and nanoscopic rough surface make CNT carpets excellent materials for anti-icing coatings. However, the slipping and sliding of adjacent CNTs and poor adhesion at the CNT/substrate interface restrict their practical application. In this work, high-quality CNT carpets with an in situ strengthening interlayered structure (SI-CNT carpets) are developed by a one-step chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method with the assistance of seed-mediated binary catalysts (Fe3O4/AlOx). With component separation and sandwich-like structural redistribution of catalysts during the CVD process, a dense strengthening interlayer is formed in the middle of CNT carpets without damaging the nanoscopic rough surface on top. Therefore, an order of magnitude increase in Young’s modulus (up to ∼500 MPa) and 2.5× improvement in the freezing delay time (TD) of water droplets (∼50 s) can be achieved, indicating high anti-icing performance and suitable mechanical stability of SI-CNT carpets for practical anti-icing application.