Superhydrophobic and photothermal polylactic acid composite aerogels with anti-icing and deicing properties

Photothermal materials have emerged as promising candidates for anti-icing applications. Lightweight materials integrating photothermal and superhydrophobic strategies for anti-icing/deicing under extreme conditions remain underexplored. Here, we propose an three-dimensional (3D) network photothermal superhydrophobic aerogels fabricated via VTMS crosslinking and freeze-drying, which is found to drastically improve anti-icing/deicing performance and durability. CFe nanocomposites exhibit magnetic and photothermal properties. CFe x -PLA aerogels own low density (22–32 mg/cm 3 ), superhydrophobicity (146.94°-152.25°), and excellent photothermal effect. The results show the surface temperature of CFe 24 -PLA aerogels increases with the increase of the solar light density, and the maximum temperature can reach 87.53 °C. Under a solar light density, the sun lamp is switched on and off three times in a row, and the maximum temperature of CFe 3 -PLA aerogels could reach and maintain at about 68 °C, presenting excellent photothermal stability. Moreover, The deicing time of CFe-PLA aerogel is shortened from 522 s to 207 s, saving more than 60 % of the deicing time. At −70 °C, the freezing time of 10 μL water droplets on the aerogel surface with CFe is 302.5 s (CFe 3 -PLA), 173.3 s (CFe 6 -PLA), 151.9 s (CFe 12 -PLA), and 107.9 s (CFe 24 -PLA). This work provides a novel and effective method to prepare advanced photothermal aerogels for all weather ourdoor anti-icing applications.