Boehler C, Oberueber F, Stieglitz T, Asplund M
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2017 Jul;2017:1058-1061. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2017.8037009.
Nanostructured materials exhibit large electrochemical surface areas and are thus of high interest for neural interfaces where low impedance and high charge transfer characteristics are desired. While progress in nanotechnology successively enabled smaller feature sizes and thus improved electrochemical properties, concerns were raised with respect to the mechanical stability of such nano structures for use in neural applications. In our study we address these concerns by investigating the mechanical and electrochemical stability of nanostructured platinum. Neural probes with nano-Pt were exposed to exaggerated stress tests resembling insertion into neural tissue over 60 mm distance or long-term stimulation over 240 M biphasic current pulses. Thereby only insignificant changes in electrochemical properties and morphological appearance could be observed in response to the test, proving that nanostructured platinum exhibits outstanding stability. With this finding, a major concern in using nanostructured materials for interfacing neural tissue could be eliminated, demonstrating the high potential of nanostructured platinum for neuroprosthetic devices.
纳米结构材料具有较大的电化学表面积，因此对于需要低阻抗和高电荷转移特性的神经接口而言具有很高的研究价值。虽然纳米技术的发展相继实现了更小的特征尺寸，从而改善了电化学性能，但人们对于此类纳米结构在神经应用中的机械稳定性提出了担忧。在我们的研究中，我们通过研究纳米结构铂的机械稳定性和电化学稳定性来解决这些担忧。带有纳米铂的神经探针经受了夸张的压力测试，类似于在60毫米距离内插入神经组织或在240M双相电流脉冲下进行长期刺激。由此，在测试过程中仅观察到电化学性能和形态外观的微小变化，证明纳米结构铂具有出色的稳定性。有了这一发现，使用纳米结构材料与神经组织进行接口时的一个主要担忧得以消除，这表明纳米结构铂在神经假体装置方面具有很高的潜力。
