Khudhair D, Amani Hamedani H, Gaburro J, Shafei S, Nahavandi S, Garmestani H, Bhatti A
Deakin University, Waurn Ponds Campus, Vic 3216, Australia.
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA 30332, USA.
Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2017 Aug 1;77:111-120. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2017.03.112. Epub 2017 Mar 19.
Micro/nano electrodes employing nanotubes has attracted paramount attention in recent years due to their inherent superior mechanical and structural properties. Electrical interfaces with different geometries and sizes have been developed as electrodes for measuring action potentials and investigating neural information processing in neural networks. In this work, we investigated the possibility of using TiO nanotube arrays that were grown using electrochemical anodization technique, as a micro/nano electrode for neural interfacing. The morphology of fabricated nanotube arrays were found to be significantly affected by the applied voltage. Annealing and doping of TiO nanotube arrays has been performed to improve the structural and electrical properties of the nanotube arrays. It was found that the annealing and doping with nitrogen improve the electrical conductivity of the nanotube arrays. Moreover, the tube diameter and length can be controlled by changing the applied voltage and that can significantly affect the biocompatibility of the nanotube arrays. It was observed that nitrogen doped nanotubes with morphology consisting of 61nm diameter, 25nm wall thickness and tube length of 2.25μm could be good candidate to be used as electrodes for biological interfacing. This is due to the fact that the nitrogen doped nanotubes with aforementioned morphology possess great properties necessary for effective biological interfacing such as low impedance, high capacitance and good biocompatibility.
近年来，采用纳米管的微/纳电极因其固有的优异机械和结构性能而备受关注。具有不同几何形状和尺寸的电接口已被开发用作测量动作电位和研究神经网络中神经信息处理的电极。在这项工作中，我们研究了使用通过电化学阳极氧化技术生长的TiO纳米管阵列作为用于神经接口的微/纳电极的可能性。发现所制备的纳米管阵列的形态受到施加电压的显著影响。对TiO纳米管阵列进行了退火和掺杂，以改善纳米管阵列的结构和电学性能。发现用氮进行退火和掺杂可提高纳米管阵列的电导率。此外，管直径和长度可以通过改变施加电压来控制，这会显著影响纳米管阵列的生物相容性。据观察，具有61nm直径、25nm壁厚和2.25μm管长形态的氮掺杂纳米管可能是用作生物接口电极的良好候选者。这是因为具有上述形态的氮掺杂纳米管具有有效生物接口所需的优异性能，如低阻抗、高电容和良好的生物相容性。
