Superhydrophobic enhanced nanofluidic channels: Preparing a self-healing, anti-icing coating

A Covalent Organic Frameworks with superhydrophobic nanofluidic channels was assembled. • The coating synergistically combined self-healing corrosion protection and anti-icing abilities. • The anti-corrosion performance was verified through localized electrochemical testing. • The mechanism of anti-icing performance was simulated by Finite Element Analysis. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with nanofluidic channels have shown great potential in self-healing anticorrosion coatings for metals. In this paper, a strategy was reported to fabricate a superhydrophobic nanofluidic-channel coating (SCOF coating) that concurrently delivered anti-icing, and self-healing protection. The specific surface area of the produced COF reaches 1714.1 m 2 ·g −1 , which can achieve a BTA loading of 31% and increase the photothermal efficiency to 39.21%.The SCOF coating achieved a superhydrophobic contact angle of 154° and maintained this non-wetting behavior even after enduring 800 abrasion cycles under a 100 g load, 300 consecutive tape peeling cycles, and 30 min of high-impact water jet impingement. Electrochemical evaluations revealed that the intact coating provided an exceptional initial |Z| 0.01 Hz of 3.7 × 10 10  Ω·cm 2 . Upon localized damage, the pH-responsive controller releases corrosion inhibitor and restores the barrier. Furthermore, the robust Cassie structure and photothermal conversion synergistically reduced the ice adhesion strength to 18 kPa, extended the freezing delay time by 340%, and enabled complete ice melting within 383 s. This facile yet efficient strategy opened new avenues for practical coatings in cold environments. Download: Download high-res image (166KB) Download: Download full-size image