ArticleACS applied polymer materials2026
Humidity-Controlled Growth of Self-Healing Poly(ethylenimine)/Poly(acrylic Acid) (PEI/PAA) Multilayer Films.
Article in ACS applied polymer materials, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
Functional polymer coatings with tunable electrical and surface properties are central to applications in organic electronics, sensing, and practical coatings, where durability and self-healing (SH) capability are also critical for reliable operation. A good candidate for these applications is Poly-(ethylenimine)/poly-(acrylic acid) (PEI/PAA) layer-by-layer (LbL) films with intrinsic SH ability, whose properties are strongly influenced by the amount of water retained within the multilayer structure during growth. In this paper, we investigate PEI/PAA multilayers deposited under controlled relative humidity (RH = 50%, 70%, 90%) to clarify the role of water in film formation and performance. Films deposited at 50% and 70% RH exhibit capacitances of approximately 1.06 nF and 0.70 nF, respectively, while those grown at 90% RH reach approximately 5 nF. Electrical transport shows a pronounced negative differential resistance (NDR) peak at around 1.3 V, strongest in the 90% RH film. Through terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS), we independently confirm hydration differences through changes in the dielectric constant and, consequently, the refractive index, which manifest as relative delays of the transmitted ultrashort terahertz pulses. Surface characterization reveals a increase in roughness, from 1.8 ± 0.2 μm to 14.8 ± 3.1 μm, accompanied by enhanced hydrophobicity (contact angle rising from 68° to 90°). Only the 90% RH film exhibits complete self-healing within 10 min. Overall, humidity-controlled deposition provides a simple, scalable strategy to tune dielectric response, surface functionality, and SH performance in weak polyelectrolyte multilayers. Such control enables the design of reproducible, multifunctional coatings for next-generation soft-electronic and sensing applications.
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