Ultra-efficient and ultra-rapid solar cell de-icing and de-snowing

Frost formation and snow coverage is troublesome for a wide range of applications including air conditioning, refrigeration, wind turbines, and photovoltaic solar cells. In solar cell applications, snow coverage in winter times and dust coverage lead to a huge power loss. To maintain energy efficiency and operational fidelity, snow, frost, and ice need to be removed in a highly efficient and rapid manner. Even the state-of-the-art de-snowing, defrosting, and de-icing methods suffer from high energy consumption (10 J cm^-2) and taking long times (> 1 min.). Here, we integrated a pulse electrothermal heating method with a transparent and self-cleaning nanoengineered coating capable of achieving ultra-efficient and rapid (~ 1 s.) interfacial de-snowing, defrosting, and de-icing. Specifically, the transparency and self-cleaning properties of the coating are designed to remove both snow and dust from solar cells while minimizing the interference to light absorption. We experimentally demonstrate the defrosting performance of our multi-functional coating and show the enhanced efficiency in energy and time for ice and snow removal. This method is applicable to other applications such as heat exchangers, wind turbines, and power transmission lines.