De-Icing with Electricity, Not Heat

danspalding writes: "The New York Times has this article about using eletricity against ice. Turns out ice creates a reverse charge in whatever it binds to, and that that charge can be neutralized. Battery-powered ice cream scoopers can't be far behind."

Comments

Ice is uses protons to conduct (Attn ChemE people)

[gartogg]

"Ice is one of the unusual semiconductors in which electrical charges are conducted by moving protons instead of electrons. It was that property of ice that particularly intrigued Dr. Petrenko."

On a chemical level, how do protons shift the atom that they are part of the nucleus of? Is there a special property of crystals that makes this happen or is it just ice that does this?

Any information would be, well, informative...