Layered nanocomposites from gold nanoparticles for neural prosthetic devices.

ABSTRACT: Treatments of neurological diseases, diagnostics of brain malfunctions, and the realization of brain-computer interfaces require ultrasmall electrodes that are "invisible" to resident immune cells. Functional electrodes smaller than 50 μm are impossible to produce with traditional materials due to high interfacial impedance at the characteristic frequency of neural activity and insufficient charge storage capacity. The problem can be resolved by using gold nanoparticle nanocomposites. Careful comparison indicates that layer-by-layer assembled films from Au NPs provide more than 3-fold improvement in interfacial impedance and 1 order of magnitude increase in charge storage capacity. Prototypes of microelectrodes could be made using traditional photolithography. Integration of unique nanocom

SUBMITTER: Zhang H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3427743 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature