Nanostructured materials to put an end to icy airplanes and roads

“We see this approach as a radical and much needed shift in anti-ice technologies,” said team leader Prof. Joanna Aizenberg. “The concept of friction-free surfaces that deflect supercooled water droplets before ice nucleation can even occur is more than just a theory or a proof-of-principle experiments. We have begun to test this promising technology in real-world settings to provide a comprehensive framework for optimizing these robust ice-free surfaces for a wide range of applications, each of which may have a specific set of performance requirements.”

http://www.gizmag.com/non-icing-nanostructured-surfaces/16950/
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nn102557p