Durable Elastomeric Snowphobic Surfaces

Snow accumulation on photovoltaic modules, wind turbines, bridge cables, vehicles, and roads causes significant economic and safety issues. Here, an extremely durable and transparent snowphobic coating is developed while studying a wide range of elastomeric surfaces. The strength of snow adhesion was studied indoors using artificial snow, while its performance against natural snow removal was examined through outdoor tests. It was shown that an extremely smooth surface of 0.4 nm in roughness with a reduced ice adhesion strength of 12.8 ± 4.3 kPa and a water droplet sliding angle of 1.5 ± 0.6° leads to a reduced snow adhesion strength of 53 ± 16.3 Pa, exhibiting enhanced snow removal/snowphobic characteristics. A snow adhesion reduction factor of 30 was obtained on the snowphobic coating when compared to the bare substrate. In addition, the coating exhibited enhanced natural snow removal/shedding behavior at a subzero temperature of −4.2 °C after being exposed to outdoor weather conditions for over 3 months. Lastly, the coatings showed extreme durability after applying a sequence of UV, thermal cycling, and humidity freeze tests. Shear ice and snow adhesion tests were performed on the coatings after durability tests, verifying durable snowphobicity. The coatings presented here can be used for facilitating snow removal from solar panels, wind turbines, and bridge cables, among other potential applications.