Detection of Ice Formation With the Polymeric Mixed Ionic-Electronic Conductor PEDOT: PSS for Aeronautics

Ice formation detection is important in telecommunications and aeronautics, e.g., ice on the wings of an aircraft affects its aerodynamic performance and leads to fatal accidents. While many types of sensors exist, resistive sensors for ice detection have been poorly explored. They are however attractive because of their simplicity and the possibility to install an array of sensors on large areas to map the ice formation on wings. Hygroscopic ionic conductors have been demonstrated for resistive ice sensing but their high resistance prevents the readout of sensor arrays. In this work, mixed ionic-electronic polymer conductors (MIEC) are considered for the first time for ice detection. The polymer blend poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is solution deposited on a pair of electrodes. The sensor displays an abrupt rise in electrical resistance during the transition phase between water liquid to solid. It is proposed that the morphology and electronic transport in PEDOT are affected by the freezing event because the absorbed water in the PSS-rich phase undergoes dilatation upon forming ice crystals. For the aeronautics application, successful tests of integration of sensing layer in pre-preg layers of aeronautical grade and freezing detection are carried out to validate the ice detection principle.