Materials technologies for controlling wetting, icing and liquid-surface interactions

The symposium will focus on the fundamental and applied aspects of liquid–solid interactions, highlighting recent advances in materials design, surface chemistry, and micro/nano-structuring for controlling wetting, ice nucleation, and ice adhesion phenomena.

Scope:

This symposium will highlight recent advances in materials engineering that enable control of liquid–surface interactions through modifications of surface roughness, energy, and geometry. A major goal is to explore how surface properties influence wettability and key phenomena such as ice formation.

We particularly encourage contributions addressing the physics of interfacial phenomena and the anti-icing behavior of materials. Ice accretion on exposed surfaces—from infrastructure to vehicles—can cause severe safety risks and operational failures, making material-based mitigation strategies highly relevant.

State-of-the-art approaches in this field include:

1. Anti-icing surfaces and coatings: engineered to reduce ice nucleation and adhesion while extending freezing delay times.
2. De-icing technologies: using thermal, mechanical, plasmonic, magnetic, plasma, or acoustic methods to actively remove ice.
3. Smart and responsive systems: integrating anti-icing and de-icing capabilities with real-time ice detection for adaptive performance.

The symposium will also address the fundamentals of heterogeneous ice nucleation, influenced by surface chemistry, morphology, and water droplet dynamics. The concept of icephobicity—combining water repellency, delayed nucleation, and low ice adhesion—will be central to discussions.

Particular attention will be given to superhydrophobic and slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS), which offer promising solutions for water management, antimicrobial functionality, and ice mitigation. Mechanical robustness and long-term durability remain major challenges for practical use. Thus, the symposium will emphasize materials design strategies and advanced characterization methods to evaluate and enhance performance under real-world conditions.

We aim to foster a multidisciplinary dialogue covering:

• Engineering of advanced surface materials
• Mechanisms of ice formation and adhesion
• Novel testing and characterization tools
• Evaluation of anti-icing and de-icing performance

Researchers from academia and industry are warmly invited to contribute and exchange insights on this rapidly evolving field.

Hot topics to be covered by the symposium:

Topics of interest (but not limited to):

• Fundamentals of wetting and ice nucleation;
• Effects of surface chemistry and morphology on hydrophobicity and ice adhesion;
• Design of hierarchical and multifunctional materials for icing control;
• Modeling and simulation of icing processes and interfacial phenomena;
• Advanced characterization and in-situ analysis of hydro- and icephobic surfaces;
• Data-driven optimization of anti-icing coatings and smart materials
• Integration of sensors for real-time ice detection and feedback-controlled de-icing
• Durability and environmental performance of anti-icing coatings
• Use of icing wind tunnels and controlled climatic facilities
• New emerging active ice protection systems
• Hybrid (active/passive) Ice Protection Systems