A Moshizi Sajad, Pastras Christopher J, Peng Shuhua, Wu Shuying, Asadnia Mohsen
School of Engineering, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
Biomimetics (Basel). 2024 Jan 2;9(1):18. doi: 10.3390/biomimetics9010018.
Engineering artificial mechanosensory hair cells offers a promising avenue for developing diverse biosensors spanning applications from biomedicine to underwater sensing. Unfortunately, current artificial sensory hair cells do not have the ability to simultaneously achieve ultrahigh sensitivity with low-frequency threshold detection (e.g., 0.1 Hz). This work aimed to solve this gap by developing an artificial sensory hair cell inspired by the vestibular sensory apparatus, which has such functional capabilities. For device characterization and response testing, the sensory unit was inserted in a 3D printed lateral semicircular canal (LSCC) mimicking the environment of the labyrinth. The sensor was fabricated based on platinum (Pt) thin film which was reinforced by carbon nanofibers (CNFs). A Pi-shaped hair cell sensor was created as the sensing element which was tested under various conditions of simulated head motion. Results reveal the hair cell sensor displayed markedly higher sensitivity compared to other reported artificial hair cell sensors (e.g., 21.47 mV Hz at 60°) and low frequency detection capability, 0.1 Hz < f < 1.5 Hz. Moreover, like the LSCC hair cells in biology, the fabricated sensor was most sensitive in a given plane of rotational motion, demonstrating features of directional sensitivity.
工程化人工机械感觉毛细胞为开发从生物医学到水下传感等各种应用的生物传感器提供了一条有前景的途径。不幸的是，目前的人工感觉毛细胞无法同时实现具有低频阈值检测能力（例如0.1赫兹）的超高灵敏度。这项工作旨在通过开发一种受前庭感觉器官启发的人工感觉毛细胞来解决这一差距，这种人工感觉毛细胞具有这样的功能能力。为了进行器件表征和响应测试，将感觉单元插入一个模拟迷宫环境的3D打印水平半规管（LSCC）中。该传感器基于由碳纳米纤维（CNF）增强的铂（Pt）薄膜制成。创建了一个Pi形毛细胞传感器作为传感元件，并在各种模拟头部运动条件下进行测试。结果表明，与其他已报道的人工毛细胞传感器相比，该毛细胞传感器显示出明显更高的灵敏度（例如在60°时为21.47 mV/Hz）以及0.1 Hz < f < 1.5 Hz的低频检测能力。此外，与生物学中的LSCC毛细胞一样，所制造的传感器在给定的旋转运动平面内最为敏感，展现出方向敏感性特征。
