Investigation of hydration state effects on ice and frost formation on hydrogel-coated surfaces for enhanced anti-icing/frosting properties

초록

Various surface treatment technologies have been developed to design anti-icing/frosting materials. Recently, hydrogel materials have opened up new possibilities in the industrially important field of anti-icing/frosting material design because they exert anti-icing/frosting effects via intermolecular interactions between water and the material (that is, hydration). Therefore, comprehensive explorations of these intermolecular interactions are imperative to fully understanding and harnessing the potential of hydrogels as anti-icing/frosting materials. However, theoretical and fundamental approaches for inducing and tweaking the anti-icing/frosting effects based on the hydration states have rarely been reported. Therefore, the present study is aimed at elucidating the manner in which hydration state within the hydrogels affected their anti-icing/frosting properties. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the thermodynamic analysis of hydrogel materials based on an understanding of hydration states can aid significantly in addressing icing/frosting-related problems.

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