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Author: Li Yuan, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Invasive and implantable devices have been applied to neuroprostheses to diagnose or treat diseases. Nerve electrodes are the key bridge between internal tissues and external devices.
Recently, the team of Professor Wu Tianzhun from Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences, proposed a new coating strategy that can improve the performance of nerve electrodes.
The research was published on the cover of Advanced Materials Interfaces.
The miniaturization and integration of nerve electrodes will provide higher electrical stimulation/recording efficiency in clinical practice. However, as the size of the electrode shrinks, the interface impedance is extremely high, which severely reduces its charge storage and injection capabilities, thus limiting its practical application.
Based on the above considerations, Professor Wu’s research group has developed platinum (Pt) and iridium (Ir) nanomaterials in the preliminary work. Due to their excellent electrical and catalytic properties, as well as excellent stability and biocompatibility, they have effectively improved Electrical performance and stimulation efficiency.
In this study, the researchers further developed a flower-shaped Pt nanocrystal with a dense and high surface area as an intermediate layer for accumulating low-content IrOx with enhanced adhesion, showing a multiplier effect.
Compared with the bare Pt electrode of the same size, the impedance of the IrOx/Pt flower-coated microelectrode drops to ≈2 kΩ at 1 kHz, which is a reduction of 94.23%. The corresponding cathode charge storage capacity and charge injection capacity increase to 202.75±2.18 mC×cm-2 and 6.53±0.16 mC×cm-2, respectively.
The IrOx layer adheres tightly to the Pt nanocrystals and exhibits strong chronic stability under 1×108 cycles of continuous electrical stimulation.
Other candidates such as Pt nanocones and Pt leaf nanostructures combined with the same content of IrOx also showed significantly enhanced electrical properties of nerve electrodes.
It is worth noting that the prepared coating exhibits good biosafety and electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen evolution reaction in 0.5 M H2SO4.
IrOx helps to significantly reduce the Tafel slope of Pt flowers from 162.9 mV×dec-1 to 41.1 mV×dec-1, and has excellent durability after chronoamperometry testing.
In addition, after 48 hours of culture, the surface coverage of E. coli on IrOx/Pt flower electrodes was much lower than that of flat Pt electrodes, confirming its potential antibacterial ability.
"This strategy can be applied to neural interfaces, water oxidation, anti-biological pollution, and is expected to be used in flexible bioelectronics and energy storage, such as neural prostheses, high-efficiency stimulation/recording electrodes, and biosensing applications," said the researcher The first author is Dr. Qi Zeng. Further explore the newly proposed strategy to provide high-efficiency smart flexible nerve electrodes. More information: Qi Zeng et al., platinum nanocrystals assisted by low-content iridium for high-performance flexible electrodes: nerve interface, water oxidation and anti-microbial pollution applications , Advanced Materials Interface (2021). DOI: 10.1002/admi.202100965 Chinese Academy of Sciences provides citation: New coating strategy to improve the performance of neural electrodes (November 15, 2021) Retrieved on November 18, 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2021-11- coating-strategy-neural-electrodes.html This document is protected by copyright. Except for any fair transaction for private learning or research purposes, no part may be copied without written permission. The content is for reference only.
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