Abstract
A highly-stable and biocompatible nanoporous electrode is demonstrated herein. The electrode is based on a porous anodic alumina which is conformally coated with an ultra-thin layer of diamond-like carbon. The nanocarbon coating plays an essential role for the chemical stability and biocompatibility of the electrodes; thus, the coated electrodes are ideally suited for biomedical applications. The corrosion resistance of the proposed electrodes was tested under extreme chemical conditions, such as in boiling acidic/alkali environments. The nanostructured morphology and the surface chemistry of the electrodes were maintained after wet/dry chemical corrosion tests. The non-cytotoxicity of the electrodes was tested by standard toxicity tests using mouse fibroblasts and cortical neurons. Furthermore, the cell–electrode interaction of cortical neurons with nanocarbon coated nanoporous anodic alumina was studied in vitro. Cortical neurons were found to attach and spread to the nanocarbon coated electrodes without using additional biomolecules, whilst no cell attachment was observed on the surface of the bare anodic alumina. Neurite growth appeared to be sensitive to nanotopographical features of the electrodes. The proposed electrodes show a great promise for practical applications such as retinal prostheses and bionic implants in general.
Highlights
Diamond and diamond-like carbon (DLC) are attractive candidate materials for implantation into the body due to their excellent properties, such as high chemical stability, superb biocompatibility and tunable surface chemistry [1,2,3,4,5,6]
The results suggest that DLC-AAO with its three-dimensional nanocarbon structure has a great promise for applications in bionic electrodes and 3D cell culture
The acid boil treatment is a technique routinely used in the diamond community to clean off any residual impurities and sp2-bonded carbon from diamond surface. This result clearly shows that the conformal coating of DLC layer is the key factor for the chemical stability of DLC-AAO membranes
Summary
Diamond and diamond-like carbon (DLC) are attractive candidate materials for implantation into the body due to their excellent properties, such as high chemical stability, superb biocompatibility and tunable surface chemistry [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The implanted bionic diamond device has an array of neurally-interfaced stimulating microelectrodes which can communicate with cerebral cortex These brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), can link the brain (through neurons) to the external world by means of computer processing [22,23]. It has been shown that three-dimensional structures—such as scaffolds and nanoporous materials—can significantly influence the tissue-device interface (such as neural compatibility) by improving the cell adhesion, migration, and proliferation [25,26,27,28]. The chemically stable and non-cytotoxicity nanoporous DLC-AAO provides unique features for range of biomedical and biological applications such as bionic devices, 3D scaffolds, membrane for cell growth and nerve repair [35]. The results suggest that DLC-AAO with its three-dimensional nanocarbon structure has a great promise for applications in bionic electrodes and 3D cell culture
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