A feasible way for the fabrication of single walled carbon nanotube/polypyrrole composite film with controlled pore size for neural interface

Abstract

Single walled carbon nanotube (SWNT)/polypyrrole (PPy) composite films with controlled pore size and strong adhesive force was prepared as electrode material for improving the performance of neural electrodes. SWNT film with controlled pore size was first fabricated through electrophoresis with a merit that the pore size can be well tuned by changing the concentration of metal ions in the electrolyte. An ultrathin conformal PPy layer around SWNT bundles in a uniform manner within the entire films was subsequently obtained by pulsed electropolymerization. The adhesion of the SWNT coated electrodes was tested by repeatedly inserting the coated electrode into agar gel to demonstrate the better adhesive force of the coating. Electrochemical results showed that the SWNT/PPy coated metal electrodes have much lower impedance and higher charge storage capacity than the bare metal substrates. Further in vitro culture of rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells revealed that the porous SWNT/PPy composite film was non-toxic and well supported the growth of neurons. We demonstrate that the prepared composite film has potential applications in chronic implantable neural electrodes for neural stimulation and recording.