A research team from the Highway Research Institute of the Chinese Ministry of Transportation has come up with a way to make roads ice-resistant. The results of the work were published in the journal ACS Omega.
The authors suggested adding polymer microcapsules with organic salts to the asphalt, which melt snow and prevent the formation of ice on the road without additional treatment. The effect persists for seven to eight years.
Field experiments have confirmed that as a result of the gradual degradation of the polymer, the contents of the microcapsules are slowly released onto the roadway, preventing the formation of ice. Moreover, the freezing temperature of water on the surface of the route decreased to -21 degrees.
According to scientists, the use of microcapsules is more effective and cheaper than sprinkling roads with salt chloride.
