Fluorine-free, highly transparent, chemically durable and low ice adhesion icephobic coatings from biobased epoxy and polydimethylsiloxane

Passive icephobic surfaces have been extensively studied by researchers due to their advantages of delaying icing time and reducing ice adhesion strength. However, icephobic materials with petroleum-based resources and toxic fluorine-containing chemicals, as one of the excellent icephobic materials, are very unfavorable for resource conservation and environmental protection. In this study, we report fluorine-free, highly transparent, chemically durable and low ice adhesion icephobic coatings prepared by glycerol triglycidyl ether (GTE) derived from natural glycerin and bis(3-aminopropyl) terminated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) via one-pot method. On the one hand, PDMS with multiple methyl groups and two amine groups acts as a hydrophobic modifier to modulate the surface energy of the coatings, and also acts as a structure modifier to modulate the mechanical properties of the coatings, which allow us to design and synthesis the coating with excellent deicing performance (ice adhesion strength can reach about 16 kPa). On the other hand, GTE with multiple epoxy groups works as cross-linker to endow the coatings with good cross-linked networks, so that the coatings showed good durability after being subjected to different temperature treatment and different solution treatments. In additional, the transmittance of the coating is above 91.4%, which is expected to be applied to windows and sensors.