Photoinduced healing of polyolefin dielectrics enabled by surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles

Dielectrics with the capability to sustain large electric fields and to repair electrical damages rapidly are attracting for advanced insulation systems. Herein we demonstrate, for the first time, polymer blends with a co-continuous structure can heal electrical-breakdown-damage under laser illumination. Polymer blends consisting of polyethylene (PE) and poly(ethylene- co -vinyl acetate) (EVA) plus a small amount of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were prepared via a solvent-assisted approach. The co-continuous structure was obtained by controlling the mass ratio of PE/EVA to 50/50 wt %. The PE/EVA blend showed a relatively high dielectric strength of 215 kV mm −1 at room temperature under a direct current electric field. The dielectric strength was slightly reduced to 202 kV mm −1 by incorporating with 0.42 wt % of AuNPs. Importantly, after electrical breakdown, the AuNPs-filled blend films were able to restore their dielectric strength to 80% of the initial values by laser irradiation for seconds. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136 , 47158.