{"id":228153,"date":"2025-12-31T21:11:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/low-cost-gelators-nearly-double-the-performance-of-aircraft-anti-icing-fluids-finds-new-study"},"modified":"2025-12-31T21:11:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:11:34","slug":"low-cost-gelators-nearly-double-the-performance-of-aircraft-anti-icing-fluids-finds-new-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/low-cost-gelators-nearly-double-the-performance-of-aircraft-anti-icing-fluids-finds-new-study","title":{"rendered":"Low-cost gelators nearly double the performance of aircraft anti-icing fluids, finds new study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/low-cost-gelators-nearly-double-the-performance-of-aircraft-anti-icing-fluids-finds-new-study2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tiny molecules already used to thicken everyday products like lotions and adhesives may soon help keep aircraft safe in icy conditions. These molecules, known as low-molecular-weight gelators (LMWGs), can self-assemble into soft, gel-like structures and have long been used in industrial formulations.<\/p>\n<p>In a study <a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/acs.langmuir.5c05067\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Langmuir<\/i>, researchers report that adding just small amounts of these molecules can significantly improve the performance of aircraft anti-icing fluids.<\/p>\n<p>The team modified commercial deicing and anti-icing fluids\u2014which already contain polymers for protective coating\u2014by incorporating LMWG molecules to produce a <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news\/2022-10-coating-aims-aircraft-de-icing.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\">hybrid gel formulation<\/a>. They tested three variants of a gelator, known as DBS (1,3:2,4-dibenzylidenesorbitol), at varying levels of aviation-grade agents used to remove existing ice and prevent new ice formation on aircraft surfaces during ground operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tiny molecules already used to thicken everyday products like lotions and adhesives may soon help keep aircraft safe in icy conditions. These molecules, known as low-molecular-weight gelators (LMWGs), can self-assemble into soft, gel-like structures and have long been used in industrial formulations. In a study published in Langmuir, researchers report that adding just small amounts [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1491],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}