Controllable tip exposure of ultramicroelectrodes coated by diamond-like carbon via direct microplasma jet for enhanced stability and fidelity in single-cell recording  

作　　者：Zhiyuan Du Qingda Xu Ye Xi Mengfei Xu Jiawei Cao Longchun Wang Xiuyan Li Xiaolin Wang Qingkun Liu Zude Lin Bin Yang Jingquan Liu 

机构地区：[1]National Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro and Nano Manufacture Technology,Shanghai Jiao Tong University,Shanghai,China [2]DCI Joint Team,Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA,Department of Micro/Nano Electronics,Shanghai Jiao Tong University,Shanghai,China

出　　处：《Microsystems & Nanoengineering》2025年第1期225-235,共11页微系统与纳米工程(英文)

基　　金：supported by the National Key R&D Program of China under grant 2022YFF120301;the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant Nos.XDA25040100,XDA25040200 and XDA25040300);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.42127807-03);Project supported by Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project(2021SHZDZX);Shanghai Pilot Program for Basic Research-Shanghai Jiao Tong University(No.21TQ1400203);the Oceanic Interdisciplinary Program of Shanghai Jiao Tong University(No.SL2023ZD205);SJTU Trans-med Award(No.21X010301627).

摘　　要：Precise and long-term electroanalysis at the single-cell level is crucial for the accurate diagnosis and monitoring of brain diseases.The reliable protection in areas outside the signal acquisition points at sharp ultramicroelectrode(UME)tips has a significant impact on the sensitivity,fidelity,and stability of intracellular neural signal recording.However,it is difficult for existing UMEs to achieve controllable exposure of the tip functional structure,which affects their ability to resist environmental interference and shield noise,resulting in unsatisfactory signal-to-noise ratio and signal fidelity of intracellular recordings.To address this issue,we chose a dense and electrochemically stable diamond-like carbon(DLC)film as the UME protection coating and developed a method to precisely control the exposed degree of the functional structure by directly fixed-point processing of the UME tip by the strong site-selectivity and good controllability of the atmospheric microplasma jet.By analyzing the interaction between the microplasma jet and the UME tip,as well as the changes in the removal length and microstructure of UME tips with processing time,the exposed tip length was precisely controlled down to the submicron scale.Biocompatibility experiments,electrochemical aging tests and real-time intracellular pH recording experiments have demonstrated that the DLC-UME with effective tip protection processed by microplasma jet has the potential to enable long-term detection of intracellular high-fidelity signals.

关 键 词：ULTRAMICROELECTRODE single cell recording signal fidelity diagnosis monitoring brain diseasesthe diamond carbon tip exposure intracellular neural signal microplasma jet 

分 类 号：O657.1[理学—分析化学]