Experimental Investigation on the Influence of Deposition Power and Pressure on the Anti-Icing and Wettability Properties of Al-Doped ZnO Thin Films Prepared by Magnetron Sputtering

In the presented research, aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were synthe-sized on high-power transmission lines using the RF magnetron sputtering process. The impact of deposition power (160 W to 280 W) and deposition pressure (2 Pa to 5 Pa), on the structural, surface, wettability and anti-icing properties of the films was thoroughly investigated. Key characteristics like material composition, wettability, an-ti-icing behavior, and average crystal size were analyzed. The optimization of wetta-bility and anti-icing performance was carried out using two-factor, four level design of the Taguchi method. Considerable variation in water contact angle from 92.3° to 123.6°, has been observed suggesting an enhancement in hydrophobic nature with op-timized condition. Anti-icing tests demonstrated that the coated surface delayed ice accumulation by approximately 4.56 times compared to the uncoated surface. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was carried out to confirm notable changes in the intensity of the (002) peak along the c-axis, directly correlating with grain size modification. The change in surface roughness was studied using AFM and results were compared to es-tablish relation between surface roughness and average grain size. Overall, the find-ings highlight the critical role of deposition parameters and their interactions in modi-fying the surface and structural properties of AZO thin films, which demonstrates their potential application for improving the anti-icing performance of transmission lines.