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 similar to 500 MPa) and 2.5x improvement in the freezing delay time (T-D) of water droplets (similar to 50 s) can be achieved, indicating high anti-icing performance and suitable mechanical stability of SI-CNT carpets for practical anti-icing application.