Chemical Synthesis of Polypyrrole Nanotubes for Neural Microelectrodes

AbstractA low impedance electrode/tissue interface is critically important for neural microelectrodes recording to maintain signal quality. In this study, polypyrrole (PPy) nanotubes used to decrease the interface impedance. PPy nanotubes were chemically synthesized inside the alumina template. SEM analysis showed 70nm inside diameter of nanotubes. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests were performed for impedance measurement of PPy nanotubes coated microelectrode surface. The results showed that the impedance of the microelectrodes with PPy nanotubes coatings was four order of magnitude lower than the electrodes without coating in the neural frequency. EIS results also showed significant decrease in impedance of PPy nanotubes rather than PPy thin films

Recent Development of Nanomaterial-Doped Conductive Polymers

© 2017, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society. Conductive polymers (CPs) have received significant research attention in material engineering for applications in microelectronics, micro-scale sensors, electromagnetic shielding, and micro actuators. Numerous research efforts have been focused on enhancing the conductivity of CPs by doping. Various conductive materials, such as metal nanoparticles and carbon-based nanoparticles, and structures, such as silver nanoparticles and graphene nanosheets, have been converted into polypyrrole and polypyrrole compounds as the precursors to developing hybrids, conjugates, or crystal nodes within the matrix to enhance the various structural properties, particularly the electrical conductivity. This article reviews nanomaterial doping of conductive polymers alongside technological advancements in the development and application of nanomaterial-doped polymeric systems. Emphasis is given to conductive nanomaterials such as nano-silver particles and carbon-based nanoparticles, graphene nano-sheets, fullerene, and carbon nanotubes (CNT) as dopants for polypyrrole-based CPs. The nature of induced electrical properties including electromagnetic absorption, electrical capacitance, and conductivities of polypyrrole systems is also discussed. The prospects and challenges associated with the development and application of CPs are also presented