Staples Naomi A, Goding Josef A, Gilmour Aaron D, Aristovich Kirill Y, Byrnes-Preston Phillip, Holder David S, Morley John W, Lovell Nigel H, Chew Daniel J, Green Rylie A
Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Front Neurosci. 2018 Jan 11;11:748. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00748. eCollection 2017.
Nerve block waveforms require the passage of large amounts of electrical energy at the neural interface for extended periods of time. It is desirable that such waveforms be applied chronically, consistent with the treatment of protracted immune conditions, however current metal electrode technologies are limited in their capacity to safely deliver ongoing stable blocking waveforms. Conductive hydrogel (CH) electrode coatings have been shown to improve the performance of conventional bionic devices, which use considerably lower amounts of energy than conventional metal electrodes to replace or augment sensory neuron function. In this study the application of CH materials was explored, using both a commercially available platinum iridium (PtIr) cuff electrode array and a novel low-cost stainless steel (SS) electrode array. The CH was able to significantly increase the electrochemical performance of both array types. The SS electrode coated with the CH was shown to be stable under continuous delivery of 2 mA square pulse waveforms at 40,000 Hz for 42 days. CH coatings have been shown as a beneficial electrode material compatible with long-term delivery of high current, high energy waveforms.
神经阻滞波形需要在神经界面长时间传递大量电能。与治疗持续性免疫疾病一致，期望长期应用此类波形，然而目前的金属电极技术在安全输送持续稳定的阻滞波形的能力方面存在限制。导电水凝胶（CH）电极涂层已被证明可改善传统仿生设备的性能，这类设备使用的能量比传统金属电极少得多，用于替代或增强感觉神经元功能。在本研究中，使用市售的铂铱（PtIr）袖带电极阵列和新型低成本不锈钢（SS）电极阵列探索了CH材料的应用。CH能够显著提高两种阵列类型的电化学性能。涂有CH的SS电极在以40,000 Hz连续输送2 mA方波波形42天的情况下表现稳定。CH涂层已被证明是一种与高电流、高能量波形的长期输送兼容的有益电极材料。
