Scalable and Robust Hollow Nanopillar Electrode for Enhanced Intracellular Action Potential Recording
Jiaru Fang, Dongxin Xu, Hao Wang, Jin Wu, Ying Li, Tao Yang, Chuan Liu, Ning Hu
Abstract
Electrophysiology is a unique biomarker of the electrogenic cells that can perform a disease investigation or drug assessment. In the recent decade, vertical nanoelectrode arrays can successfully achieve a high-quality intracellular electrophysiological study in electrogenic cells and their networks. However, a high success rate and high-quality and long-term intracellular recording using low-cost nanostructures is still a considerable challenge. Herein, we develop a scalable and robust hollow nanopillar electrode to achieve enhanced intracellular recording of cardiomyocytes. The template-based synthesis of vertical hollow nanopillars is compatible with large-scale and efficient microfabrication processes and is convenient to regulate the geometry of hollow nanopillars. Compared with the conventional same-size planar electrode, the regulating height of a hollow nanopillar can achieve high-quality and prolonged intracellular recordings, which can improve the cell-electrode interface for tight coupling and effective electroporation. It is demonstrated that the geometry regulation of a nanostructure is a powerful strategy to enhance intracellular recording.