A catecholamine freestanding film is discovered to be spontaneously formed at the air-water interface, and the film has unique properties of robust surface adhesiveness, self-healing, and stimuli-responsive properties. The interfacial film-producing procedure is a simple single step containing polyamines and catechol(amine)s. It is found that oxygen-rich regions existing at an air-water interface greatly accelerate the catecholamine crosslinking reaction.
Keywords: air-water interface; catecholamine; polymeric films; self-healing; stimuli-responsive.
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