De-Icing at Where the Ice and Surface Meet (IMAGE)
Caption
Researchers have developed a way to remove ice and frost from surfaces extremely efficiently, using less than 1% of the energy and less than 0.01% of the time needed for traditional defrosting methods. Instead of conventional defrosting, which melts all the ice or frost from the top layer down, the researchers established a technique that melts the ice where the surface and the ice meet, so the ice can simply slide off. They describe their work in Applied Physics Letters. This image shows (a) thin layer of ITO coating applied to substrate to be de-iced; (b) ITO heats up as current applied, water melts at interface allowing ice to slide down under gravity; (c) time-lapse images during de-icing.
Credit
Nenad Miljkovic
Usage Restrictions
Journalists may use this image only with appropriate credit.
License
Licensed content