Yilin Song

An ascorbic acid amperometric sensor using over-oxidized polypyrrole and palladium nanoparticles composites

We constructed a highly responsive ascorbic acid (AA) sensor utilizing over-oxidized polypyrrole (OPPy) and Palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs) composites (OPPy-PdNPs). In the presence of PdNPs, polypyrrole (PPy) was coated on a gold (Au) electrode through cyclic voltammetry (CV) and over-oxidized at a fixed potential in NaOH solution. The PdNPs were characterized using ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectrum and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The surface of OPPy-PdNPs on the Au electrode was investigated using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Results revealed that the OPPy-PdNPs-modified Au electrode (OPPy-PdNPs/Au) has the capacity to catalyze the oxidation of AA by lowering its oxidation potential to 0 V. The OPPy-PdNPs/Au electrode exhibited 2 different linear concentration ranges. In the low concentration range (1-520 μM), OPPy-PdNPs/Au exhibited a direct linear relation with current responses and had high sensitivity (570 μA mM(-1)cm(-2)) and a high correlation coefficient (0.995). In contrast, in the higher concentration range (120-1600 μM), the relationship between current responses and concentration of AA can be represented by a two-parameter sigmoidal equation. In addition, the sensor exhibited a short response time (less than 2s) and a very low limit of detection of 1 μM. The electrochemical AA sensor constructed in this study was simple, inexpensive, reproducible, sensitive, and resistant to interference. Thus, the proposed sensor has great potential for detecting AA in complex biosystems and can be applied in various fields, particularly neuroscience.

A novel dual mode microelectrode array for neuroelectrical and neurochemical recording in vitro

The communication between neurons is inherently electrical and chemical in nature. In situ, simultaneous acquisition for the dual mode signals is important for neuroscience research. In this paper, the concept of dual mode neural microelectrode array (MEA) sensor was proposed, and a low cost thin film MEA chip for in vitro test was fabricated using standard lithography technology. The sensor incorporates arrayed microelectrodes, a counter electrode and a reference electrode on one glass slide, which is suitable for electrophysiological and electrochemical recording in vitro. Electrophysiological recordings were carried out on acute hippocampus slice. Local field potentials and three different spike firing patterns with the amplitude ranging from ± 20 μV to ± 60 μV were acquired by the arrayed microelectrodes. Electrochemical current response of the microelectrodes to calibrated dopamine solution was tested. A good linear relationship between the current and dopamine concentration was observed, with the detection sensitivity of 4671 μA mM(-1)cm(-2) and a correlation coefficient of 0.986. The sensor is novel for its capability of detecting in vitro dual mode neural signals on one single chip.

A silicon based implantable microelectrode array for electrophysiological and dopamine recording from cortex to striatum in the non-human primate brain

Dual-mode, multielectrode recordings have become routine in rodent neuroscience research and have recently been adapted to the non-human primate. However, robust and reliable application of acute, multielectrode recording methods in monkeys especially for deep brain nucleus research remains a challenge. In this paper, We described a low cost silicon based 16-site implantable microelectrode array (MEA) chip fabricated by standard lithography technology for in vivo test. The array was 25mm long and designed to use in non-human primate models, for electrophysiological and electrochemical recording. We presented a detailed protocol for array fabrication, then showed that the device can record Spikes, LFPs and dopamine (DA) variation continuously from cortex to striatum in an esthetized monkey. Though our experiment, high-quality electrophysiological signals were obtained from the animal. Across any given microelectrode, spike amplitudes ranged from 70 to 300μV peak to peak, with a mean signal-to-noise ratio of better than 5:1. Calibration results showed the MEA probe had high sensitivity and good selectivity for DA. The DA concentration changed from 42.8 to 481.6μM when the MEA probe inserted from cortex into deep brain nucleus of striatum, which reflected the inhomogeneous distribution of DA in brains. Compared with existing methods allowing single mode (electrophysiology or electrochemistry) recording. This system is designed explicitly for dual-mode recording to meet the challenges of recording in non-human primates.

Highly sensitive detection of quantal dopamine secretion from pheochromocytoma cells using neural microelectrode array electrodeposited with polypyrrole graphene.

For the measurement of events of dopamine (DA) release as well as the coordinating neurotransmission in the nerve system, a neural microelectrode array (nMEA) electrodeposited directionally with polypyrrole graphene (PG) nanocomposites was fabricated. The deposited graphene significantly increased the surface area of working electrode, which led to the nMEA (with diameter of 20 μm) with excellent selectivity and sensitivity to DA. Furthermore, PG film modification exhibited low detection limit (4 nM, S/N = 3.21), high sensitivity, and good linearity in the presence of ascorbic acid (e.g., 13933.12 μA mM(-1) cm(-2) in the range of 0.8-10 μM). In particular, the nMEA combined with the patch-clamp system was used to detect quantized DA release from pheochromocytoma cells under 100 mM K(+) stimulation. The nMEA that integrates 60 microelectrodes is novel for detecting a large number of samples simultaneously, which has potential for neural communication research.

A high sensitivity MEA probe for measuring real time rat brain glucose flux.

The mammalian central nervous system (CNS) relies on a constant supply of external glucose for its undisturbed operation. This article presents an implantable Multi-Electrode Array (MEA) probe for brain glucose measurement. The MEA was implemented on Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) wafer using Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) methods. There were 16 platinum recording sites on the probe and enzyme glucose oxidase (GOx) was immobilized on them. The glucose sensitivity of the MEA probe was as high as 489 µA mM(-1) cm(-2). 1,3-Phenylenediamine (mPD) was electropolymerized onto the Pt recording surfaces to prevent larger molecules such as ascorbic acid (AA), 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC), serotonin (5-HT), and dopamine (DA) from reaching the recording sites surface. The MEA probe was implanted in the anesthetized rat striatum and responded to glucose levels which were altered by intraperitoneal injection of glucose and insulin. After the in vivo experiment, the MEA probe still kept sensitivity to glucose, these suggested that the MEA probe was reliable for glucose monitoring in brain extracellular fluid (ECF).

Development and Application of 16-Channel Two-Mode Recording System for Neurochemical and Neuroelectrical Signals

Abstract A 16-channel two-mode recording system used for detection of neurochemical and neuroeletrical signals was developed. The instrument system consists of hardware and software components whose current and voltage resolutions are 10 pA and 0.6 μV, respectively. The software adopted multithreading, multicache, and other techniques to achieve real-time detection, spike separation, IIR filter, chronoamperometry, cyclic voltammetry, etc. The performance of the system was demonstrated in electrophysiological experiment and dopamine concentration measurement. The signal-to-noise ratio ( S/N ) recorded from VTA of SD rat was 9.7. The current response increased linearly with the concentration of dopamine in the range of 0.1–378 μM with a correlation coefficient of 0.9958. The results indicated that the recording system had high resolution and was suitable for electrophysiological and the electrochemical signal detection.

Selective recognition of 5-hydroxytryptamine and dopamine on a multi-walled carbon nanotube-chitosan hybrid film-modified microelectrode array.

It is difficult to determine dopamine (DA) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) accurately because of the interference of ascorbic acid (AA) in vitro, which has a high concentration and can be oxidized at a potential close to DA and 5-HT at a conventional electrode, combined with the overlapping voltammetric signal of DA and 5-HT at a bare electrode. Herein, chitosan (CS) was used as a stabilizing matrix by electrochemical reaction, and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were modified onto the microelectrode array (MEA). The CS-MWCNT hybrid film-modified MEA was quite effective at simultaneously recognizing these species in a mixture and resolved the overlapping anodic peaks of AA, DA and 5-HT into three well-defined oxidation peaks in differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) at −80 mV, 105 mV and 300 mV (versus Ag|AgCl), respectively. The linear responses were obtained in the range of 5 × 10−6 M to 2 × 10−4 M for DA (r = 0.996) and in the range of 1 × 10−5 M to 3 × 10−4 M for 5-HT (r = 0.999) using the DPV under the presence of a single substance. While DA coexisted with 5-HT in the interference of 3 × 10−4 M AA, the linear responses were obtained in the range of 1 × 10−5 M to 3 × 10−4 M for selective molecular recognition of DA (r = 0.997) and 5-HT (r = 0.997) using the DPV. Therefore, this proposed MEA was successfully used for selective molecular recognition and determination of DA and 5-HT using the DPV, which has a potential application for real-time determination in vitro experiments.

Simultaneous recording of brain extracellular glucose, spike and local field potential in real time using an implantable microelectrode array with nano-materials.

Glucose is the main substrate for neurons in the central nervous system. In order to efficiently characterize the brain glucose mechanism, it is desirable to determine the extracellular glucose dynamics as well as the corresponding neuroelectrical activity in vivo. In the present study, we fabricated an implantable microelectrode array (MEA) probe composed of platinum electrochemical and electrophysiology microelectrodes by standard micro electromechanical system (MEMS) processes. The MEA probe was modified with nano-materials and implanted in a urethane-anesthetized rat for simultaneous recording of striatal extracellular glucose, local field potential (LFP) and spike on the same spatiotemporal scale when the rat was in normoglycemia, hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia. During these dual-mode recordings, we observed that increase of extracellular glucose enhanced the LFP power and spike firing rate, while decrease of glucose had an opposite effect. This dual mode MEA probe is capable of examining specific spatiotemporal relationships between electrical and chemical signaling in the brain, which will contribute significantly to improve our understanding of the neuron physiology.

Carbon fiber ultramicrodic electrode electrodeposited with over-oxidized polypyrrole for amperometric detection of vesicular exocytosis from pheochromocytoma cell.

Vesicular exocytosis is ubiquitous, but it is difficult to detect within the cells communication mechanism. For this purpose, a 2 μm ultramicrodic carbon fiber electrode was fabricated in this work based on electrodeposition with over-oxidized polypyrrole nanoparticle (PPyox-CFE), which was applied successfully for real-time monitoring of quantal exocytosis from individual pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells. PPyox-CFE was evaluated by dopamine (DA) solutions through cyclic voltammetry and amperometry electrochemical methods, and results revealed that PPyox-CFE improved the detection limit of DA. In particular, the sensitivity of DA was improved to 24.55 μA·μM−1·μm−2 using the PPyox-CFE. The ultramicrodic electrode combined with the patch-clamp system was used to detect vesicular exocytosis of DA from individual PC12 cells with 60 mM K+ stimulation. A total of 287 spikes released from 7 PC12 cells were statistically analyzed. The current amplitude (Imax) and the released charge (Q) of the amperometric spikes from the DA release by a stimulated PC12 cell is 45.1 ± 12.5 pA and 0.18 ± 0.04 pC, respectively. Furthermore, on average ∼562,000 molecules were released in each vesicular exocytosis. PPyox-CFE, with its capability of detecting vesicular exocytosis, has potential application in neuron communication research.

Application of Planar Microelectrode Array Modified by Nano-structure Titanium Nitride on Dual Mode Neural Information Recording

Abstract The nano-structure TiN was modified on the laboratory self-made planar microelectrode array pMEA by magnetron sputtering method. The performance of modified pMEA was investigated. The research on neuroelectrical and neurochemical recording was studied in vitro. The impedance of the modified pMEA was decreased almost one order of magnitude, and the background noise level was reduced to ±6 μV. In the same testing environment, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of modified electrodes was 1.7 times of bare electrodes. The SNR of neuroelectrical recording on the brain slice of SD rats reached 10:1, and the weak signal such as ±12 μV was separated easily. For neuroelectrical recordings, the detection limit of dopamine (DA) solution reached 50 nM with the 2:1 SNR. In the concentration range of 0.05–100 μM, the linearly dependent coefficient of the DA oxidation currents was 0.998. The modification of nano-structure TiN on pMEA reduced pMEA impedance and background noise level, meanwhile the SNR was increased. The weak signals of neuroelectrical and neurochemical recording were successfully recorded.