Icephobic materials and strategies: From bio-inspirations to smart systems

Unwanted ice formations may cause severe functional degradations of facilities and also have a negative impact on their lifespans. Avoiding and removing ice accumulation is always a hot topic in the industrial and technological field. Bionic functional surfaces have been greatly studied for several decades and have proved to be excellent candidates for passive anti-/deicing applications. However, the drawbacks limit their potential industrial uses under harsh conditions, like low temperatures and high humidity. Most researches on bionic surfaces are focused on a certain function of natural creatures and their underlined fundamental theories are revealed by taking the interface as the static. Actually, living organisms, either plants or animals, are often sensitive and responsive to their surroundings, avoiding risks and even self-repairing upon damage. From this prospect, a novel view of the bionic icephobic materials has been proposed in the present review, which is expected to be studied and designed by taking the biological species as a system. As two representative icephobic materials, the anti-/deicing theories of superhydrophobic and slippery surfaces are first discussed. Further, the recent progress of smart icephobic strategies is summarized from interfaces to substrates. We aim to provide new bionic insights on designing future icephobic strategies.