ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science

3 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

JoVE Core

Behavioral Determination of Stimulus Pair Discrimination of Auditory Acoustic and Electrical Stimuli Using a Classical Conditioning and Heart-rate Approach

Simeon J. Morgan¹, Antonio G. Paolini¹

¹School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University

The application of a classical fear conditioning behavioral paradigm for auditory prosthetic research in rats is described. This paradigm provides a mechanism for identifying both detection of, and discrimination between, distinct acoustic and electrical stimuli using heart-rate as an outcome measure.

Neuroscience

A Method for Systematic Electrochemical and Electrophysiological Evaluation of Neural Recording Electrodes

Alexander R. Harris^1,3, Simeon J. Morgan^1,3, Gordon G. Wallace³, Antonio G. Paolini^1,3,4

¹School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, ²Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, University of Wollongong, ³ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, ⁴Health Innovations Research Institute, College of Science, Engineering, and Health, RMIT University

Different electrode coatings affect neural recording performance through changes to electrochemical, chemical and mechanical properties. Comparison of electrodes in vitro is relatively simple, however comparison of in vivo response is typically complicated by variations in electrode/neuron distance and between animals. This article provides a robust method to compare neural recording electrodes.

Engineering

Integrating a Triplet-triplet Annihilation Up-conversion System to Enhance Dye-sensitized Solar Cell Response to Sub-bandgap Light

Andrew Nattestad¹, Yuen Yap Cheng², Rowan W. MacQueen², Gordon G. Wallace¹, Timothy W. Schmidt³

¹ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI), The University of Wollongong, ²School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney, ³School of Chemistry, The University of New South Wales

An integrated device, incorporating a dye-sensitized solar cell and triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion unit was produced, affording enhanced light harvesting, from a wider section of the solar spectrum. Under modest irradiation levels a significantly enhanced response to low energy photons was demonstrated, yielding a record figure of merit for dye-sensitized solar cells.