Aramesh Morteza, Tong Wei, Fox Kate, Turnley Ann, Seo Dong Han, Prawer Steven, Ostrikov Kostya Ken
School of Physics, the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.
School of Chemistry, Physics, and Mechanical Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia.
Materials (Basel). 2015 Aug 5;8(8):4992-5006. doi: 10.3390/ma8084992.
A highly-stable and biocompatible nanoporous electrode is demonstrated herein. The electrode is based on a porous anodic alumina which is conformally coated with an ultra-thin layer of diamond-like carbon. The nanocarbon coating plays an essential role for the chemical stability and biocompatibility of the electrodes; thus, the coated electrodes are ideally suited for biomedical applications. The corrosion resistance of the proposed electrodes was tested under extreme chemical conditions, such as in boiling acidic/alkali environments. The nanostructured morphology and the surface chemistry of the electrodes were maintained after wet/dry chemical corrosion tests. The non-cytotoxicity of the electrodes was tested by standard toxicity tests using mouse fibroblasts and cortical neurons. Furthermore, the cell-electrode interaction of cortical neurons with nanocarbon coated nanoporous anodic alumina was studied . Cortical neurons were found to attach and spread to the nanocarbon coated electrodes without using additional biomolecules, whilst no cell attachment was observed on the surface of the bare anodic alumina. Neurite growth appeared to be sensitive to nanotopographical features of the electrodes. The proposed electrodes show a great promise for practical applications such as retinal prostheses and bionic implants in general.
本文展示了一种高度稳定且具有生物相容性的纳米多孔电极。该电极基于多孔阳极氧化铝，其上共形涂覆有一层超薄的类金刚石碳。纳米碳涂层对电极的化学稳定性和生物相容性起着至关重要的作用；因此，涂覆后的电极非常适合生物医学应用。所提出的电极在极端化学条件下进行了耐腐蚀测试，例如在沸腾的酸性/碱性环境中。经过湿/干化学腐蚀测试后，电极的纳米结构形态和表面化学性质得以保持。通过使用小鼠成纤维细胞和皮质神经元的标准毒性测试，对电极的无细胞毒性进行了测试。此外，还研究了皮质神经元与纳米碳涂覆的纳米多孔阳极氧化铝之间的细胞 - 电极相互作用。发现皮质神经元在不使用额外生物分子的情况下能够附着并铺展在纳米碳涂覆的电极上，而在裸露的阳极氧化铝表面未观察到细胞附着。神经突生长似乎对电极的纳米拓扑特征敏感。总体而言，所提出的电极在视网膜假体和仿生植入物等实际应用中显示出巨大的潜力。
