Reversible thermochromic and heat storage coating for adaptive de/anti-icing and thermal regulation

In recent years, photothermal coatings have attracted researchers much attentions for anti-icing applications. However, the overheating due photothermal effect at midday or in non-icing period is inevitably encountered and results in the speed-up aging of the coatings. Herein, a reversible thermochromic phase-transition heat storage coating (TCHSC) containing thermochromic microcapsules is designed to adjust photothermal efficiency by discoloration during non-icing period. In cold surroundings, the coating surface shows black color and presents a high photothermal efficiency, which can transform solar energy into heat for anti-icing and de-icing effectively. Yet, the color of coating turns to white spontaneously in hot surroundings with a low photothermal generation efficiency, which avoids the overheating of coating. Besides, discoloration is caused by forming unconjuncted structure in thermochromic dye, and meanwhile the heat is stored during phase transition process of dye, which helps to adjust the temperature rising and cooling rate of coating and contributes to de/anti-icing. What’s more, discoloration temperature of thermochromic capsules can be tuned by adjusting the melting point of dye in thermochromic capsules. The TCHSC with heat regulation provides a new strategy to tackle the conventional overheating issue of photothermal anti-icing coating in summer or at midday, paving a key step towards its real applications.