Nanotubes for brain implants

3 October 2008

Although metal electrodes have widely been used for brain transplants in treating especially Parkinson’s disease, however the major drawback of these electrodes is that the performance of these electrodes deteriorates over time and there is difficulty is designing electrodes that can receive and transmit signals.

Researchers at the University of Texas are working on electrodes coated with carbon nanotubes. These electrodes were studied on mice and monkeys and it was found that nanotube coat improves the neural activity and requires less power to operate than the conventional metal electrodes.

Presently the battery life of conventional electrodes is only three years and due to less power consumption and feedback enabled devices used in new nanotube coated electrodes, the life of the battery is expected to be higher by a few more years.

The presently used metal electrodes are good in sending electrical signals than receiving the signals, however the newly developed nanotubes coated electrodes are better in both receiving and sending the electrical signals.

The research was led by Edward keefer, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical College. The research team started on modifying the electrodes. By applying high voltage across the electrodes dipped in a water based solution of carbon naotubes, the carbon nanotubes get coated on the surface of the electrode. The advantage of these carbon nanotubes based electrodes is that scientist can easily modify their surfaces.

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