PRESS RELEASE

Ultraflexible organic amplifier with biocompatible gel electrodes

 

Authors

  • Tsuyoshi Sekitani, Tomoyuki Yokota, Kazunori Kuribara, Martin Kaltenbrunner, Takanori Fukushima, Yusuke Inoue, Masaki Sekino, Takashi Isoyama, Yusuke Abe, Hiroshi Onodera & Takao Someya

 

Abstract

In vivo electronic monitoring systems are promising technology to obtain biosignals with high spatiotemporal resolution and sensitivity. Here we demonstrate the fabrication of a biocompatible highly conductive gel composite comprising multi-walled carbon nanotube-dispersed sheet with an aqueous hydrogel. This gel composite exhibits admittance of 100 mS cm−2 and maintains high admittance even in a low-frequency range. On implantation into a living hypodermal tissue for 4 weeks, it showed a small foreign-body reaction compared with widely used metal electrodes. Capitalizing on the multi-functional gel composite, we fabricated an ultrathin and mechanically flexible organic active matrix amplifier on a 1.2-μm-thick polyethylene-naphthalate film to amplify (amplification factor: ~200) weak biosignals. The composite was integrated to the amplifier to realize a direct lead epicardial electrocardiography that is easily spread over an uneven heart tissue.

 

 

Abstract URL:http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160429/ncomms11425/abs/ncomms11425.html