Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Unravelling the mystery of fish scales in lowering ice adhesion

揭示鱼鳞降低冰黏附力的奥秘

  • Articles
  • Published:
Science China Materials Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The influence of static surface properties, such as free energy, toughness, and elasticity, on icephobicity has been extensively studied and documented in existing literature. However, there remains limited understanding of the role played by surface dynamic characteristics in facilitating ice removal. This study investigates the ice adhesion strength of authentic Arctic salmon (Salmon salar) skin, revealing intriguing anisotropic ice adhesion behavior. Results indicate a significant decrease in ice adhesion strength (141 ± 47 kPa) when sheared against the growth orientation of fish scales compared with shearing along this orientation (353 ± 95 kPa). The distinctive structural evolution of fish scales during shearing can lead to a sequential rupture process, thereby diminishing ice adhesion. Additionally, the study highlights the significance of the opening and peeling capacity of fish scales in controlling ice detachment, defined as the ability of unit scales to separate from their underlying structures and adhesives under applied force. Enhancing this capacity could further reduce ice adhesion strength (66 ± 15 kPa), facilitating effortless ice detachment on fish scales. The mechanical robustness of fish scales offers new possibilities for designing hard and durable anti-icing surfaces.

摘要

近几十年来, 大量的研究文献表明, 研究人员一直在探究静态表 面特性(包括自由能、韧性和弹性)对疏冰性的影响. 然而, 对于动态表 面特性在辅助除冰方面的理解非常有限. 在本工作中, 我们重点研究了 北三文鱼表皮的冰黏附强度, 并且观察到了有趣的各向异性的冰黏附 行为. 与顺着鱼鳞生长方向的冰黏附强度(353 ± 95 kPa)相比, 逆着鱼 鳞生长方向的冰黏附强度(141 ± 47 kPa)降低了60%. 我们发现, 鱼鳞在 受到剪切力的过程中, 会发生独特的结构演变, 从而导致界面连续断裂, 有利于降低冰的黏附性. 研究发现, 鱼鳞的张开和剥离能力(描述了鳞 片在外力下与其下部鳞片和黏结物分离的趋势)可以调控冰的脱落. 通 过提高鱼鳞的张开和剥离能力, 可以在鱼鳞上实现更低的冰黏附强度 (66 ± 15 kPa)和更为容易的除冰过程. 由于鱼鳞具有出色的机械鲁棒 性, 这一发现为设计坚硬耐用的防覆冰表面提供了新的视角.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Carey KL, Kevin L. Icings developed from surface water and ground water. Hanover: Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, 1973

    Google Scholar 

  2. Zhang W, Yu Y, Su Z, et al., Investigation and analysis of icing and snowing disaster happened in Hunan power grid in 2008. Power System Tech, 2008, 4: 5

    Google Scholar 

  3. Yu WB, Lai YM, Bai WL, et al. Icing problems on road in Da Hinggangling forest region and prevention measures. Cold Regions Sci Tech, 2005, 42: 79–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Mosher FR, Schaum D, Herbster C, et al. Analysis of causes of icing conditions which contributed to the crash of continental flight 3407. 2010, file:///C:/Users/Administrator/Downloads/163118.pdf

  5. Sutherby FS. Icing problems on ships. J Glaciol, 1951, 1: 546–548

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Kraj AG, Bibeau EL. Phases of icing on wind turbine blades characterized by ice accumulation. Renew Energy, 2010, 35: 966–972

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Kreder MJ, Alvarenga J, Kim P, et al. Design of anti-icing surfaces: Smooth, textured or slippery? Nat Rev Mater, 2016, 1: 15003

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Wang F, Zhuo Y, He Z, et al. Dynamic anti-icing surfaces (DAIS). Adv Sci, 2021, 8: 2101163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Zhuo Y, Chen J, Xiao S, et al. Gels as emerging anti-icing materials: A mini review. Mater Horiz, 2021, 8: 3266–3280

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Wang F, Ma R, Xiao S, et al. Anti-gas hydrate surfaces: Perspectives, progress and prospects. J Mater Chem A, 2022, 10: 379–406

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Chatterjee R, Beysens D, Anand S. Delaying ice and frost formation using phase-switching liquids. Adv Mater, 2019, 31: 1807812

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Jin Y, Wu C, Yang Y, et al. Inhibiting condensation freezing on patterned polyelectrolyte coatings. ACS Nano, 2020, 14: 5000–5007

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Golovin K, Dhyani A, Thouless MD, et al. Low-interfacial toughness materials for effective large-scale deicing. Science, 2019, 364: 371–375

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Golovin K, Kobaku SPR, Lee DH, et al. Designing durable icephobic surfaces. Sci Adv, 2016, 2: e1501496

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Irajizad P, Al-Bayati A, Eslami B, et al. Stress-localized durable ice-phobic surfaces. Mater Horiz, 2019, 6: 758–766

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Wang F, Xiao S, Zhuo Y, et al. Liquid layer generators for excellent icephobicity at extremely low temperatures. Mater Horiz, 2019, 6: 2063–2072

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Wang Y, Yao X, Chen J, et al. Organogel as durable anti-icing coatings. Sci China Mater, 2015, 58: 559–565

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Liu J, Zhu C, Liu K, et al. Distinct ice patterns on solid surfaces with various wettabilities. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2017, 114: 11285–11290

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Nosonovsky M, Hejazi V. Why superhydrophobic surfaces are not always icephobic. ACS Nano, 2012, 6: 8488–8491

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. He Z, Xiao S, Gao H, et al. Multiscale crack initiator promoted super-low ice adhesion surfaces. Soft Matter, 2017, 13: 6562–6568

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Guo P, Zheng Y, Wen M, et al. Icephobic/anti-icing properties of micro/nanostructured surfaces. Adv Mater, 2012, 24: 2642–2648

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Lv J, Song Y, Jiang L, et al. Bio-inspired strategies for anti-icing. ACS Nano, 2014, 8: 3152–3169

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. He Z, Zhuo Y, Wang F, et al. Design and preparation of icephobic PDMS-based coatings by introducing an aqueous lubricating layer and macro-crack initiators at the ice-substrate interface. Prog Org Coatings, 2020, 147: 105737

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Wang F, Ding W, He J, et al. Phase transition enabled durable anti-icing surfaces and its DIY design. Chem Eng J, 2019, 360: 243–249

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Dhyani A, Pike C, Braid JL, et al. Facilitating large-scale snow shedding from in-field solar arrays using icephobic surfaces with low-interfacial toughness. Adv Mater Technologies, 2022, 7: 2101032

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Mohseni M, Recla L, Mora J, et al. Quasicrystalline coatings exhibit durable low interfacial toughness with ice. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2021, 13: 36517–36526

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Dhyani A, Wang J, Halvey AK, et al. Design and applications of surfaces that control the accretion of matter. Science, 2021, 373: eaba5010

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Li Q, Guo Z. Fundamentals of icing and common strategies for designing biomimetic anti-icing surfaces. J Mater Chem A, 2018, 6: 13549–13581

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Ru Y, Fang R, Gu Z, et al. Reversibly thermosecreting organogels with switchable lubrication and anti-icing performance. Angew Chem Int Ed, 2020, 59: 11876–11880

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Rao Q, Zhang J, Zhan X, et al. UV-driven self-replenishing slippery surfaces with programmable droplet-guiding pathways. J Mater Chem A, 2020, 8: 2481–2489

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Irajizad P, Hasnain M, Farokhnia N, et al. Magnetic slippery extreme icephobic surfaces. Nat Commun, 2016, 7: 1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Alasvand Zarasvand K, Pope C, Mohseni M, et al. Metallic plate buckling as a low adhesion mechanism for durable and scalable ice-phobic surface design. Adv Mater Inter, 2022, 9: 2101402

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Liu M, Wang S, Wei Z, et al. Bioinspired design of a superoleophobic and low adhesive water/solid interface. Adv Mater, 2009, 21: 665–669

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Li G, Lu Y, Wu P, et al. Fish scale inspired design of underwater superoleophobic microcone arrays by sucrose solution assisted femtosecond laser irradiation for multifunctional liquid manipulation. J Mater Chem A, 2015, 3: 18675–18683

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Xiao S, Skallerud BH, Wang F, et al. Enabling sequential rupture for lowering atomistic ice adhesion. Nanoscale, 2019, 11: 16262–16269

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Ikoma T, Kobayashi H, Tanaka J, et al. Microstructure, mechanical, and biomimetic properties of fish scales from Pagrus major. J Struct Biol, 2003, 142: 327–333

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Li X, Bhushan B. A review of nanoindentation continuous stiffness measurement technique and its applications. Mater Charact, 2002, 48: 11–36

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Dou R, Chen J, Zhang Y, et al. Anti-icing coating with an aqueous lubricating layer. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2014, 6: 6998–7003

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Mulherin ND, Haehnel RB. Ice engineering: Progress in evaluating surface coatings for icing control at corps hydraulic structures. Engineer Research and Development Center Hanover Nh Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab, 2003

  40. Zhuo Y, Håkonsen V, He Z, et al. Enhancing the mechanical durability of icephobic surfaces by introducing autonomous self-healing function. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2018, 10: 11972–11978

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Kendall K. Thin-film peeling-the elastic term. J Phys D-Appl Phys, 1975, 8: 1449–1452

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The Norwegian Research Council is acknowledged for its support of the NANO2021 Project Dual-Functional Anti-Gas Hydrate Surfaces (DAndra, 302348), the FRIPRO Project towards the Design of Super-Low Ice Adhesion Surfaces (SLICE, 250990), and the Norwegian Micro-and Nano-Fabrication Facility, NorFab (295864).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Structural Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, 7491, Norway

    Feng Wang  (王锋), Siqi Liu  (刘思琪), Senbo Xiao  (肖森波), Bjørn Skallerud, Zhiliang Zhang  (张志良) & Jianying He  (何健英)

  2. Suzhou Laboratory, Suzhou, 215000, China

    Feng Wang  (王锋)

Authors
  1. Feng Wang  (王锋)
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Siqi Liu  (刘思琪)
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Senbo Xiao  (肖森波)
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Bjørn Skallerud
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Zhiliang Zhang  (张志良)
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jianying He  (何健英)
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Author contributions Wang F, Liu S, and Xiao S designed the experiments. Wang F prepared the samples and performed the measurement and characterization with most of the analysis. Wang F wrote the paper with support from Skallerud B, Zhang Z, and He J. Zhang Z and He J provided financial support. All authors contributed to the general discussion.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Zhiliang Zhang  (张志良) or Jianying He  (何健英).

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Supplementary information Experimental details and supporting data are available in the online version of the paper.

Feng Wang received his BE degree from Wuhan University of Science and Technology, China, and MSc degree from Shanghai University, China. From 2016 to 2017 he worked at Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. From 2017 to 2020 he undertook a PhD project at the Department of Structural Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where he developed dynamic anti-icing surfaces for mitigating icing problem. His current focus is on discovering novel anti-icing surfaces through enabling dynamic evolutions at ice-substrate interfacial region.

Zhiliang Zhang received his BSc and MSc degrees from Tongji University, China, and his PhD degree from Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland in 1994. He then worked as a research scientist and senior research scientist at SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, Trondheim, Norway before he was appointed as a full professor of NTNU in 2003. He was the founder of NTNU Nanomechanical Lab. His research group currently focuses on the material property-structure relationships, anti-icing materials, antigas hydrate surfaces, and nanostructured functional materials for energy applications.

Jianying He received her PhD degree in structural engineering from NTNU in 2009. She has been an assistant professor at the University of Science and Technology Beijing (2003–2006), a postdoctoral fellow at NTNU (2009–2011), an associate professor at NTNU (2011–2017), and since 2017, a professor in nanomechanics at NTNU. Her current research area includes nanostructured materials, nanotechnology for petroleum engineering, and nano-enabled icephobicity.

Supplementary Materials for

Unravelling the mystery of fish scales in lowering ice adhesion

Supplementary material, approximately 33.6 MB.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wang, F., Liu, S., Xiao, S. et al. Unravelling the mystery of fish scales in lowering ice adhesion. Sci. China Mater. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-024-2828-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-024-2828-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation