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Polar bear fur could hold the secret to replacing ‘forever chemicals'
12 February 2025
An international team, including researchers from UCL MechEng, have published a new paper in Science Advances on polar bear fur. They explored the unique anti-icing properties of the bears' fur which can help prevent ice build-up despite extreme Arctic conditions.
An international team, including researchers from UCL MechEng, have published a new paper in Science Advances on polar bear fur. The team was led by the University of Bergens, Bodil Holst and includes UCL MechEng nanoengineers Professor Manish K Tiwari and Dr Vikaramjeet Singh.
They explored the unique anti-icing properties of the bears' fur which can help prevent ice build-up despite extreme Arctic conditions, offering further insights into natural anti-icing materials. The team hopes this understanding could help us develop new anti-icing coats that could replace toxic "forever chemicals" like PFAS.
Trinity College Dublin PhD candidate Julian Carolan who conducted some experiments on the fur here at UCL MechEng said: "The sebum quickly jumped out as being the key component giving this anti-icing effect, as we discovered the adhesion strength was greatly impacted when the hair was washed. Unwashed, greasy hair made it much harder for ice to stick. In contrast, when the polar bear fur was washed and the grease largely removed it performed similarly to human hair, to which ice sticks easily whether it is washed or greasy."
“The sebum quickly jumped out as being the key component giving this anti-icing effect, as we discovered the adhesion strength was greatly impacted when the hair was washed.
The finding suggests sebum’s presence in polar bears is very important from an anti-icing perspective, they said, shedding new light on our understanding of the species.
“This work not only represents the first study of the composition of polar bear fur sebum, but it also resolves the question of why polar bears don’t suffer from ice accumulation,” noted assistant Professor Dr Richard Hobbs, who is also a research fellow in Trinity’s School of Chemistry.
Commenting on the eye-catching research, Professor Manish Tiwari said “It offers insights and inspirations to develop materials that are naturally sourced and provide a solution to the longstanding icing issue without causing harm".