Femtosecond Laser Manufacturing of Flexible Ultrablack and Superhydrophobic Medium-Entropy Alloy Films for Efficient Anti-icing/Deicing

Abstract

Ice accretion and frosting on outdoor metal infrastructures reduce performance and threaten safety, driving the development of new anti-icing and deicing strategies. Here, we fabricate a flexible ultrablack superhydrophobic film comprising laser-induced graphene and medium-entropy-alloy nanoparticles in polydimethylsiloxane (LIG-MEA-NPs@PDMS, LMP) by blade coating followed by femtosecond-laser direct writing. The key functional interface is created in a single laser-writing step. LMP exhibits a high solar absorptance of 98.92% and excellent photothermal performance, reaching ∼78.8 °C under 1 sun illumination at ambient temperature, while maintaining superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle (WCA) of ≈155°. When attached to stainless steel, LMP delays the onset of frosting and icing at −15 °C by approximately 50% and 55%, respectively. Rapid solar-driven deicing is also achieved, with ice melting and self-detaching within ∼168 s at a tilt angle of 2°. These results offer a scalable strategy for solar-driven anti-icing/antifrosting and deicing.