Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 13: Nanoparticles and Viruses

BP 13.6: Talk

Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 15:45–16:00, H45

Nanostructured gold microelectrodes for extracellular recording — •Dorothea Brüggemann, Bernhard Wolfrum, Vanessa Maybeck, and Andreas Offenhäusser — CNI Center of Nanoelectronic Systems for Information Technology and Institute of Bio- and Nanosystems 2, Forschungszentrum Jülich

Electrophysiological activity of electrogenic cells is currently recorded with planar bioelectronic interfaces such as microelectrode arrays (MEAs). In this work, a novel concept of biocompatible nanostructured gold MEAs for extracellular signal recording is presented. MEAs were fabricated using clean room technologies, e.g. photolithography and metallization. Subsequently, they were modified with gold nanopillars of approximately 300 to 400 nm in height and 60 nm width. The nanostructuring process was carried out with a template-assisted approach using nanoporous aluminium oxide. Impedance spectroscopy of the resulting nanostructures showed higher capacitances compared to planar gold. This confirmed the expected increase of the surface area via nanostructuring.

We used the nanostructured microelectrodes to record extracellular potentials from heart muscle cells (HL1), which were plated onto the chips. Good coupling between the HL1 cells and the nanostructured electrodes was observed. The resulting signal-to-noise ratio of nanopillar-MEAs was increased by a factor of 2 compared to planar MEAs. In future applications this nanopillar concept can be adopted for distinct interface materials and coupling to cellular and molecular sensing components.