Nanocarbon-Iridium Oxide Nanostructured Hybrids as Large Charge Capacity Electrostimulation Electrodes for Neural Repair

Abstract

Nanostructuring nanocarbons with IrOx yields to material coatings with large charge capacities for neural electrostimulation, and large reproducibility in time, that carbons do not exhibit. This work shows the contributions of carbon and the different nanostructures present, as well as the impact of functionalizing graphene with oxygen and nitrogen, and the effects of including conducting polymers within the hybrid materials. Different mammalian neural growth models differentiate the roles of the substrate material in absence and in presence of applied electric fields and address optimal electrodes for the future clinical applications.