Material Strategies for Ice Accretion Prevention and Easy Removal

Ice accretion in winter has been a serious threat to the security of people’s lives and facility operations. To prevent ice accretion, various materials have been developed in the past decade. In this Review, three kinds of ice accretion prevention methods, namely, active deicing, passive anti-icing, and the combination of both were summarized. By reducing water droplet retention time, decreasing the icing point, and inhibiting ice nucleus formation on the surface or suppressing ice formation through special macro–micro physicochemical structures, etc., passive anti-icing was realized. Endowing the material surfaces with low surface energy feature, impregnated lubricants or peculiar elastic modulus, etc., effectively promoted active deicing performance. Some multifunctional materials, such as photothermal or electric–thermal hydrophobic materials, have both anti-icing and deicing properties, and icing can be prevented perfectly by external energy, which was adaptable to the mutable natural environment. Finally, current challenges and future outlooks were proposed.