Abstract
In an implantable electrode, such as a pacemaker electrode, fibrotic tissue formation due to a foreign body reaction is an important challenge affecting the efficiency to transmit the electrical signal of the device. The chemical inertness, biocompatibility, and electrical conductivity of polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs) are promising features in terms of overcoming this challenge. Here, the electrochemical behavior of polymer-derived silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) and titanium-doped SiOC (SiTiOC) ceramic electrodes for use as pacemaker electrodes is investigated by measuring impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. In addition, typical stimulation electrodes such as iridium oxide, titanium nitride, platinum, and glassy carbon were prepared and loaded simultaneously into a custom-made electrochemical testing platform for comparison with SiOC and SiTiOC electrodes under identical conditions. The SiOC and SiTiOC electrodes shows a wide electrochemical stability window in the range of −0.9 to 1.2 V with a double layer capacitance as the charge injection mechanism at the electrode/phosphate-buffered saline interface. Also, analyzing the voltage transient shows that the maximum charge injection of the SiTiOC electrode was about 28 μC/cm2. The results of the electrochemical evaluation and comparison of SiOC and SiTiOC stimulating electrodes will be helpful to understand fundamental characteristics for the potential of this material as candidate for next-generation pacemaker electrodes.
Highlights
An artificial cardiac pacemaker is an implantable medical device that senses heart beating rate and stimulates the heart muscles to pump blood [1]
The fabricated electrodes were exposed at the bottom of each PDMS well through the punched 3 mm-diameter cut-out resulting in a geometric surface area (GSA) of all electrodes of 0.706 cm2
Electrochemical behaviors of polymer-derived ceramic silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) and SiTiOC electrodes were investigated for their application as pacemaker electrodes and the properties were compared with those of typical stimulation electrodes such as IrO2, Pt, titanium nitride (TiN), and glassy carbon electrodes
Summary
An artificial cardiac pacemaker is an implantable medical device that senses heart beating rate and stimulates the heart muscles to pump blood [1]. Electrical properties of carbon-rich conductive silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) PDC electrodes were investigated [32,33], and their passive (unstimulated) cytotoxicity was evaluated for pacemaker electrode application [34]. To date, studies have been rarely conducted that are systematically investigating the electrochemical properties of the PDC electrodes as a stimulating electrode for pacemaker applications, espe cially comparing them thoroughly with various types of metal and GC electrodes. Polymer-derived SiOC and SiTiOC ceramic electrodes and representative stimulation electrodes such as iridium oxide (IrO2), Pt, TiN, and GC were fabricated and integrated with a custom-made testing platform to characterize their electrochemical properties for pacemaker application. The detailed synthesis procedures of the amorphous SiOC and SiTiOC PDC electrodes and material characteristics were reported in our pre vious works [32,35]
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