Graphene improved electrochemical property in self-healing multilayer polyelectrolyte film

•bPEI/(PAA-GE) self-healing multilayer polyelectrolyte film was prepared by poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), graphene(GE) and branched poly(ethyleneimine) (bPEI) based on LBL self-assembly technique.•The bPEI/(PAA-GE) self-healing multilayer polyelectrolyte film shows excellent self-healing ability.•The bPEI/(PAA-GE) film has an improved conductive than bPEI/PAA multilayer polyelectrolyte film.

Mimicking the nature to confer synthetic materials with self-healing property in order to expand their lifespan is highly desirable and has attracted much more attention from the scientific community. But poor electrochemical property of the fabricated self-healing materials limit the current and future application. Here, self-healing multilayer polyelectrolyte film based on branched poly(ethyleneimine) (bPEI), poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and graphene(GE) (bPEI/(PAA-GE)) was prepared by layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly technique. The bPEI/(PAA-GE) self-healing multilayer polyelectrolyte film not only shows excellent self-healing ability at high humidity, but also possesses good electrical conductivity. It is promised to be applied in battery, supercapacitor or hydrogen fuel cell to improve their cyclic stability and lifetime.

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