Graphene based coating could act as a real-time de-icer for aircrafts

hypnosec writes: Researchers have developed a graphene-based coating that they have proved is effective at melting ice from a helicopter blade paving way for a real-time de-icer. The thin coating of graphene nanoribbons in epoxy has been developed by researchers at Rice University and in their tests, researchers show that the coating is capable of melting centimeter-thick ice from a static helicopter rotor blade in a minus-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.