Self-propelled ice could be the green power of the future

Scientists from Virginia Tech have discovered a way to make ice move on its own. It’s not a magic trick or a supernatural occurrence but a clever engineering feat. The team designed a flat metal surface that allows ice disks to slide across it without needing a push. The research has a host of potential applications, including rapid defrosting and new ways to harvest green energy.

The researchers were inspired by Desert Valley’s “sailing stones,” rocks that move across a dry lakebed due to a combination of melting ice and wind. This rare natural event occurs when rain settles on a hard desert floor and forms thin sheets of ice if nighttime temperatures drop below freezing. When the ice eventually melts, a small breeze can move the remaining sheets, which sometimes drag the rocks along with them.

Following the discovery of how the Desert Valley rocks move, Jonathan Boreyko and his team at Virginia Tech’s Nature-Inspired Fluids and Interface Lab set out to create a surface that moved ice along a level, horizontal path, but without wind assistance. After five years, they succeeded and published their work in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

So how did they achieve this self-propelled ice feat? The scientists constructed special aluminum plates with tiny, V-shaped grooves in a herringbone pattern. They then froze water in Petri dishes to make ice disks, which were placed on these heated plates. As the ice melted, the water was channeled by the grooves, allowing it to move forward. The herringbone pattern’s design is key, as it prevents water from flowing backward.

The team also coated some plates with a water-repellent spray to see what would happen. The ice disks initially stuck to the coated surface before suddenly zipping across the metal plate.

Beyond the lab

The researchers believe their work could have wide-ranging implications, as they outline in their paper.

“These findings demonstrate the potential for passive ice removal and phase-engineered microtransport by harnessing controlled melting and surface-guided motion, with implications for anti-icing systems, self-cleaning surfaces, and power-free microfluidic transport,” they write.

While the new research is exciting, the scientists acknowledge that more work is needed to explore its potential. One of the most promising applications could be in energy harvesting. For example, the metal plates could be patterned into circles, causing the melting ice disks to rotate continually. Then all you would have to do is attach magnets or a turbine to the rotating disks to generate power.

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