Graphene-Based Coating Could Act As a Real-time De-Icer For Aircraft (rice.edu)

hypnosec writes: Researchers have developed a graphene-based coating they have proved effective at melting ice from a helicopter blade, paving the way for a real-time de-icer. The thin coating of graphene nanoribbons in epoxy has been developed by researchers at Rice University. In their tests, researchers show the coating is capable of melting centimeter-thick ice from a static helicopter rotor blade in a -4 degree Fahrenheit environment. A small voltage was applied to the coating that delivered electrothermal heat — called Joule heating — to the surface, which melted the ice.

Comments

Re:It's just resistive heating

[slinches]

An epoxy based coating on the leading edge of a helicopter rotor will be gone almost instantly. The blades are basically sand blasted on every takeoff and landing from the dirt and sand that gets kicked up by the rotors. That's why they have that metallic cap.

Also, the reason they don't heat the entire rotor blade now is because the electrical power requirements would be excessively high and it isn't necessary. The metallic ribbon heating elements they currently use are such a small contributor to the overall weight that it's almost negligible. The rest is thermal mass and insulation necessary to evenly distribute the energy across the anti-iced section of the blade and to protect the composite blade structure from the heat. Maybe, due to reduced thickness and uniform heat output, this new coating could be applied closer to the back side of the LE abrasion shield and be more resistant to foreign object damage being a continuous sheet, but I don't expect it to revolutionize the industry. It certainly won't grossly increase the range of application of aircraft anti-ice systems. Outside of rotors/propellers, aircraft generally use engine bleed air for anti-icing since that is readily available and the electric power needs to replace those systems would require much larger and heavier generators.