The Moscow Aviation Institute is testing new anti-icing coatings for domestic aircraft, developed at the Frumkin Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IPCE RAS).
Ice on aircraft surfaces impairs its stability and controllability, and in particularly difficult cases can lead to a plane crash: it happens that icing can block the operation of external controls.
Currently, special anti-icing fluids are applied to aircraft in Russia before each flight. If they are replaced with more economical coatings, then such coatings will be enough for several hundred flights. There are analogues of this development in foreign aircraft construction, but in Russia such technologies are being created by domestic scientists for the first time.
Superhydrophobic domestic coatings from IPCE RAS are proposed to be applied to the wing, tail and other icing-prone elements of aircraft. They will literally repel water and prevent the formation of ice.
The main property of superhydrophobic coatings is a high wetting angle and a low roll-off angle, that is, an angle of more than 150 degrees is formed between the drop and the surface. And, if the surface is tilted by at least 10-15 degrees, the drop will roll off. The coatings created at IPCE RAS have wetting angles above 170 degrees, which indicates their exceptional superhydrophobic properties.
In order to fully complete the study, and to finally assess the effect of using new coatings, taking into account the requirements of aviation regulations and other standards, specialists will need three years.
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