title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soft Chemistry and Functional Materials, Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210014, China.
authors.forename: Hengyang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soft Chemistry and Functional Materials, Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210014, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Functional Materials, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China. Electronic address: yhxiao@njnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yinghong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soft Chemistry and Functional Materials, Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210014, China. Electronic address: xiaoche@mail.njust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jianfei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Che
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D055664:Electrochemical Techniques; D004566:Electrodes; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D009474:Neurons / Q000473:pathology*; D016716:PC12 Cells; D010316:Particle Size; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D016062:Porosity; D011758:Pyrroles / Q000737:chemistry*; D051381:Rats; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D011108:Polymers; D011758:Pyrroles; C067635:polypyrrole
keywords: Composite film; Controlled pore size; Neural electrodes; Strong adhesive force