One-step flame pyrolysis for nanocarbon-based multifunctional photothermal superhydrophobic films toward anti-icing and de-icing

Photothermal superhydrophobic (SH) materials hold great promise for anti-icing and de-icing applications, yet achieving durable and stable performance remains challenging. Herein, we present a rapid one-step flame pyrolysis strategy for fabricating versatile, scalable, and flexible nanocarbon-based photothermal SH films. The optimized film exhibits excellent superhydrophobicity, with a water contact angle >165.1° and a sliding angle <2.4°, which is well retained after 100 cycles of bending, stretching, and tape peeling tests. The SH film containing 2 wt% nanocarbon (C₂ SH film) achieves an average absorptance of 94.3% across 300–2500 nm wavelength range and demonstrates efficient photothermal conversion. At an ambient temperature of −15 °C, its surface temperature rises to 11 °C within 1 min under 1 sun irradiance (1000 W/m2), and even reaches 1.3 °C under 0.5 sun. The abundant hydrophobic nanostructures ensure stable Cassie-Baxter state, resulting in an exceptional icing delay time of 3814 s in the dark — 12-fold longer than that of the film without the nanostructures. Furthermore, under harsh conditions (−15 °C and 1 sun irradiance), the C₂ SH film enables rapid ice melting within 4 min. These results highlight the potential of our photothermal SH films as high-performance anti-icing and de-icing materials for harsh environments.