Abstract Condensation frost is one of the most common types of icing encountered in nature and industrial applications, while its accretion induces multiple non-negligible negative impacts. Many passive anti-/de- frosting approaches by tailoring surface topology and chemistry have been reported recently. To date, however, reliable engineered surfaced that can be compatible with heat exchangers from both mechanical and economic perspectives are limited. In this paper, we present a hierarchically structured surface that can profoundly reduce the frost coverage, and meanwhile promote the rapid removal of frost melts. This surface consists of microgroove pattern and nanoblade structure, where the former provides preferential sites for the growth of condensed droplets, and the latter promises a robust water repellent nature. During frosting, the ice phase spreads only among droplets on groove edges while condensed droplets in valleys are completely evaporated off, yielding a typical pattern that ice stripes distribute discretely in the dry background. During defrosting, frost melts coalesce into large droplets that spontaneously depart the substrate surface. Our results open up a new avenue for surface engineering, particularly on the design of economic and scalable anti-/de- frosting surfaces.

中文翻译：

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通过抑制定向冰桥促进防/除霜

摘要 凝霜是自然界和工业应用中最常见的结冰类型之一，其积冰会产生多种不可忽视的负面影响。最近报道了许多通过调整表面拓扑结构和化学的被动防/除霜方法。然而，迄今为止，从机械和经济角度来看，能够与热交换器兼容的可靠工程表面是有限的。在本文中，我们提出了一种分层结构的表面，可以显着降低霜覆盖率，同时促进融霜的快速去除。该表面由微槽图案和纳米刀片结构组成，前者为凝聚液滴的生长提供了优先位置，而后者则具有强大的防水性。在结霜期间，冰相仅在凹槽边缘的水滴之间扩散，而山谷中凝结的水滴则完全蒸发掉，形成典型的图案，即冰条纹在干燥的背景中离散分布。在除霜过程中，霜融化融合成大水滴，自发地离开基材表面。我们的结果为表面工程开辟了一条新途径，特别是在经济和可扩展的防/除霜表面设计方面。