Superhydrophobic photothermal icephobic surfaces based on candle soot.Ice accumulation causes various problems in our daily life for human society.  Recently, photothermal materials have gained attention for creating icephobic surfaces owing to their merits of energy conservation and environmental friendliness.  However, it is always challenging to get an ideal photothermal material which is cheap, easily fabricating, and highly photothermally efficient.  Here, we demonstrate a low-cost, high-efficiency superhydrophobic photothermal surface, uniquely based on inexpensive commonly seen candle soot.  The candle soot provides hierarchical nano/microstructures and photothermal ability, the silica shell strengthens the hierarchical candle soot, and the grafted low-surface-energy PDMS brushes endow the surface with superhydrophobicity. 
THERM