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Graphene microelectrode arrays for neural activity detection

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Abstract

We demonstrate a method to fabricate graphene microelectrode arrays (MEAs) using a simple and inexpensive method to solve the problem of opaque electrode positions in traditional MEAs, while keeping good biocompatibility. To study the interface differences between graphene–electrolyte and gold–electrolyte, graphene and gold electrodes with a large area were fabricated. According to the simulation results of electrochemical impedances, the gold–electrolyte interface can be described as a classical double-layer structure, while the graphene–electrolyte interface can be explained by a modified double-layer theory. Furthermore, using graphene MEAs, we detected the neural activities of neurons dissociated from Wistar rats (embryonic day 18). The signal-to-noise ratio of the detected signal was 10.31 ± 1.2, which is comparable to those of MEAs made with other materials. The long-term stability of the MEAs is demonstrated by comparing differences in Bode diagrams taken before and after cell culturing.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Nos. 2011CB707505 and 2012CB933303), the National Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21275153 and 61271161), the Scientific Equipment Research Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. YZ201337), the CAS-Helmholtz joint research team (No. GJHZ1306) and the Science and Technology Project of Jiangsu Province, China (No. BE2012049).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200050, China

    Xiaowei Du, Lei Wu, Ji Cheng, Shanluo Huang, Qi Cai, Qinghui Jin & Jianlong Zhao

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

    Xiaowei Du, Ji Cheng, Shanluo Huang & Qi Cai

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  1. Xiaowei Du
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  2. Lei Wu
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  3. Ji Cheng
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  4. Shanluo Huang
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  5. Qi Cai
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  6. Qinghui Jin
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  7. Jianlong Zhao
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Correspondence to Qinghui Jin.

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Du, X., Wu, L., Cheng, J. et al. Graphene microelectrode arrays for neural activity detection. J Biol Phys 41, 339–347 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10867-015-9382-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10867-015-9382-3

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