Development and Characterization of Environmentally Friendly Waterborne Epoxy Anti‐Icing Coatings: Role of TiO 2 and Fluoroalkyl Silane

ABSTRACT Ice accumulation in low‐temperature and high‐humidity environments poses a severe threat to critical infrastructure, while traditional anti‐icing coatings suffer from issues such as poor durability and insufficient environmental compatibility. In this study, an environmentally friendly composite anti‐icing coating was prepared using waterborne epoxy resin (WEP) as the matrix, titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) and heptadecafluorodecyltrimethoxysilane (FAS‐17) as functional fillers. The microstructure and properties of the coating were optimized by adjusting the ratio of these three components. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), contact angle and ice adhesion were used to characterize the coating's surface morphology, hydrophobicity and anti‐icing performance. The results indicate that the filling of TiO 2 and FAS‐17 in WEP matrix could effectively improve the hydrophobicity, delayed ice formation performance and ice layer adhesion strength of the coating. Compared with the uncoated sample, the ice formation time of T54F122 coating at −5°C was delayed from 225 to 943 s, a delay of 718 s, which is about 3.2 times longer than that of the uncoated sample. The ice adhesion strength of T54F122 coating at −5°C decreased from 198.4 to 157.7 kPa, which is about 20% lower than the uncoated sample.