Although superhydrophobic materials have attracted much research interest in anti-icing, some controversy still exists. In this research, we report a cost-effective method used to verify the contribution of area fraction to ice adhesion strength. We tried to partially-embed silica nanoparticles into microscale fabrics of a commercial polyamide mesh. Then, the area fraction could be determined by altering the mesh size. Generally, the ice adhesion strength decreases as the area fraction decreases. An ice adhesion strength of ∼1.9 kPa and a delayed freezing time of ∼1048 s can be obtained. We attribute the low ice adhesion strength to the combination of superhydrophobicity and stress concentration. The superhydrophobicity prohibits the water from penetrating into the voids of the meshes, and the small actual contact area leads to stress concentration which promotes interfacial crack propagation. Moreover, our superhydrophobic mesh simultaneously exhibits a micro-nano hierarchical structure and a partially-embedded structure. Therefore, the as-prepared superhydrophobic mesh retained the icephobicity after 20 icing/deicing cycles, and maintained its superhydrophobicity even after 60 sandpaper-abrasion cycles and a 220 °C thermal treatment.

尽管超疏水材料在防冰方面引起了很多研究兴趣，但是仍然存在一些争议。在这项研究中，我们报告了一种经济有效的方法，用于验证面积分数对冰附着强度的贡献。我们试图将二氧化硅纳米颗粒部分嵌入商用聚酰胺网的微型织物中。然后，可以通过更改网格大小来确定面积分数。通常，冰附着强度随着面积分数的降低而降低。可获得约1.9 kPa的冰附着强度和约1048 s的延迟冷冻时间。我们将低冰粘附强度归因于超疏水性和应力集中。超疏水性可防止水渗透到网孔中，较小的实际接触面积会导致应力集中，从而促进界面裂纹的扩展。此外，我们的超疏水网片同时展现出微纳层次结构和部分嵌入的结构。因此，所制备的超疏水性网在20次结冰/除冰循环后仍保持冰疏性，并且即使在60次砂纸磨蚀循环和220℃的热处理之后仍保持其超疏水性。