Preparation and Anti-icing Properties of Chemically Etched Superhydrophobic Aluminum Surface

Ice coating on overhead transmission lines will cause line disconnection, towers falling or other accidents, which will seriously threaten the safe and steady operation of the power grid. The present anti-icing measures have disadvantages such as passive response, poor effect, and huge energy consumption. In this paper, a superhydrophobic aluminum surface was prepared by chemical etching. The surface contact angle reached 152°, and the rolling angle was 3°. There are mountain-valley rough structures on the surface, which is in Cassie contact state and makes the surface achieve superhydrophobicity status. The effects of solution concentration and etching time on the micro-morphology and hydrophobicity of aluminum surface were investigated, and the anti-icing performance of superhydrophobic aluminum surface was studied. The results show that the contact angle first increases and then decreases with the increase of solution concentration when the etching time is the same. With the increase of etching time, the contact angle first increases and then decreases, and the rolling angle first decreases and then increases. With the etching time of 1 min, the surface reached the superhydrophobic state. Under the same cold surface temperature, with the increase of surface contact angle, the solidification time of water droplets increases, and the superhydrophobic aluminum surface is in Cassie contact state, which has good anti-icing performance.