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Plant leaves icephobicity

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Abstract

Ice adhesion and accumulation are well known to cause serious problems for different structures such as wind turbines, power transmission and distribution systems, and aircraft. Development of coatings that can resist icing can solve many challenges in various areas of industry. This work was inspired by nature and ice resistivity and superhydrophobicity of plants leaves. Kale is a winter plant with superhydrophobic behaviors, which is normally known as an advantage for cleaning the leaves; however, this article reveals that kale leaves have special surface microstructures delaying the ice formation initiation making them good candidates for designing ice-repellent coatings. In-depth experimental analyses, IR thermography, contact angle measurements, and scanning electron microscopy of the leaves were performed to discover how different plants can prevent icing and further find an optimal design for an artificial ice-repellent coating.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Elaheh Alizadeh-Birjandi & H. Pirouz Kavehpour

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  1. Elaheh Alizadeh-Birjandi
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  2. H. Pirouz Kavehpour
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Correspondence to Elaheh Alizadeh-Birjandi.

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Alizadeh-Birjandi, E., Kavehpour, H.P. Plant leaves icephobicity. J Coat Technol Res 14, 1061–1067 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11998-017-9988-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11998-017-9988-4

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