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Polymer nanofiber network reinforced gold electrode array for neural activity recording

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Abstract

Flexible and stretchable neural electrodes are promising tools for high-fidelity interfacing with soft and curvilinear brain surface. Here, we describe a flexible and stretchable neural electrode array that consists of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber network reinforced gold (Au) film electrodes. Under stretching, the interweaving PAN nanofibers effectively terminate the formation of propagating cracks in the Au films and thus enable the formation of a dynamically stable electrode-tissue interface. Moreover, the PAN nanofibers increase the surface roughness and active surface areas of the Au electrodes, leading to reduced electrochemical impedance and improved signal-to-noise ratio. As a result, PAN nanofiber network reinforced Au electrode arrays can allow for reliable in vivo multichannel recording of epileptiform activities in rats.

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Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51972073, 61971150, 21790393, 22102040) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Science (Grant No. XDB32030100).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, China

    Siting Yang, Ke Xu, Shouliang Guan, Liang Zou, Lei Gao, Jinfen Wang, Huihui Tian, Ying Fang & Hongbian Li

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Siting Yang, Ke Xu, Liang Zou, Lei Gao & Ying Fang

  3. School of Physics and Microelectronics, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450052, China

    Hui Li

  4. CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China

    Ying Fang

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  1. Siting Yang
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  2. Ke Xu
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  3. Shouliang Guan
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  4. Liang Zou
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  9. Ying Fang
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  10. Hongbian Li
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Correspondence to Hongbian Li.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants. All animal procedures were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, China.

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Yang, S., Xu, K., Guan, S. et al. Polymer nanofiber network reinforced gold electrode array for neural activity recording. Biomed. Eng. Lett. 13, 111–118 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13534-022-00257-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13534-022-00257-5

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