Within the scope of this master’s thesis, laser-structured hydrophobic surfaces with anti-icing and water-repellent properties were developed. A review of the literature revealed that the influence of the size scale of surface structures on the anti-icing performance of hydrophobic surfaces remains insufficiently investigated. In the evaluation of the surfaces, we focused on surface wettability, ice adhesion, nucleation delay, nucleation temperature, droplet rebound behavior, resistance to degradation caused by
repeated freezing and thawing of water on the surface, and corrosion resistance, with the results compared to an untreated reference surface. The experiments were conducted on samples of aluminum alloy 1050A, which were laser structured into three roughness size classes: 5 µm, 20 µm, and 75 µm. The surfaces were subsequently hydrophobized using three different coatings. Coating type A consisted of an HDPA monolayer with a thickness of approximately 5 nm. For coatings B and C, PDMS was used, with the
thickness depending on its mass fraction in the solution. Coating type B, with a mass fraction of 2.5 %, had a thickness of approximately 300 nm, while coating type C, with a mass fraction of 10 %, reached a thickness of 1.6 µm. By selecting an appropriate combination of surface roughness and coating thickness, significant improvements in surface performance were achieved: the water contact angle increased by 89 %, ice adhesion
decreased by 84 %, nucleation delay increased by 67 %, and the nucleation temperature decreased to -19.4 °C. The results of this study demonstrate that laser-structured and hydrophobized surfaces can significantly improve the anti-icing properties of materials. At the same time, it was found that no single surface configuration achieved optimal performance across all evaluated criteria.
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