Highly stretchable gold nanobelts with sinusoidal structures for recording electrocorticograms.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Neuroscience
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Developing stable and flexible electrodes is crucial for advanced neural interfaces.
• Existing electrode materials often degrade under mechanical stress, limiting their long-term performance.
• Gold nanostructures offer unique electrical and mechanical properties for bioelectronic applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To fabricate and characterize novel sinusoidal gold nanobelts as stretchable electrodes.
• To evaluate the mechanical stability and electrical performance of these nanobelts under cyclic strain.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of using these nanobelts for recording neural signals in vivo.

Main Methods:

• Sinusoidal gold nanobelts were fabricated using a rational design approach.
• The nanobelts were subjected to 10,000 cycles of stretching and relaxing to assess durability.
• Resistance changes under large deformation were measured.
• Intracranial electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocorticogram (ECoG) signals were recorded from rats.

Main Results:

• The fabricated sinusoidal gold nanobelts exhibited excellent stretchability.
• No significant change in resistance was observed after 10,000 cyclic stretching/relaxing processes.
• Successful recording of intracranial EEG/ECoG signals from rats was achieved.

Conclusions:

• Sinusoidal gold nanobelts serve as highly stable and stretchable electrodes.
• These nanobelts are suitable for long-term neural signal recording in dynamic biological environments.
• This work presents a promising material for the development of next-generation neural interfaces.