Enlisting Ice as an Ally of Skiers and Aircraft

Victor F. Petrenko, a professor at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, proposes using the electrical principle that makes ice so difficult to remove from sidewalks to create electronic brakes to slow skiers or snowboarders automatically before they get into trouble. The technology can also be used to improve the grip of snow tires or, when applied in reverse, cause ice to burst off windshields, road surfaces or airplane wings at the push of a button.

… “Ice is very much misunderstood,” he said. “We don’t know much about its properties.”

Ice is one of the unusual semiconductors in which electrical charges are conducted by moving protons instead of electrons. It was that property of ice that particularly intrigued Dr. Petrenko.

“I thought that if you exchange very light particles such as electrons with protons, it must have some significant consequences,” he said. “It seemed that if we could somehow change the electrical properties of ice, we should be able to change its mechanical properties — and vice versa.” NY Times