Fabrication of icephobic aluminium surfaces by atmospheric plasma jet polymerisation

ABSTRACT

Atmospheric plasma treatment followed by a plasma polymerisation coating produced an aluminium surface having high water repellency and icephobicity. We varied the plasma parameters and the amount of hexamethyldisiloxane precursor to optimise surface hydrophobicity. The static contact and sliding angles of the surface reached 163° and <1°, respectively. Furthermore, the prepared surfaces remained superhydrophobic after seven days of immersion in acid–base media as well as after five icing/de-icing cycles.

KEYWORDS:

• Icephobicity
• atmospheric pressure plasma jet
• plasma treatment
• aluminium
• static contact angle
• sliding angle
• coating technique
• hexamethyldisiloxane

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Pierre Camirand for his assistance in the laboratory. We are grateful to Bastien Larive for performing the IAS tests.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.