Deicing with in situ Electrolysis

The earliest experiments in ice (de-)adhesion date back to the late 1920-s in an icing tunnel in Langley, Virginia. A century of attempts later, our approaches in mitigating ice are far from developed. On one hand, anti-icing functionalizations as super-hydrophobicity or infused materials lack robustness and environmental sustainability. On the other hand, deicing strategies like chemical treatment, ohmic heating, or mechanical scrubbing are inefficient, and even crude. Here we propose a fundamentally different approach to the classical problem of deicing using in situ water electrolysis. We show with experiments how a progressing ice front can trap the electrolytically generated bubbles at the interface. Such trapped bubbles can be used to significantly diminish the energy required to fracture ice. We discuss how the proposed mechanism constitutes a self-starting, self-limiting means to reduce ice adhesion, unlike classical approaches.