Name: fabrication of ti3c2 mxene microelectrode arrays for in vivo neural recording
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This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant no. R21-NS106434), the Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy Taking Flight Award, the Mirowski Family Foundation and Neil and Barbara Smit (F.V.); the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (grant no. DGE-1845298 to N.D. and B.M.); the Army Research Office (Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-18-2-0026 to K.M.); and by the U.S. Army via the Surface Science Initiative Program at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (PE 0601102A Project VR9 to Y.G. and K.M.). This work was carried out in part at the Singh Center for Nanotechnology, which is supported by the National Science Foundation National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure Program (NNCI-1542153).

All in vivo procedures conformed to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of the University of Pennsylvania.
1. Synthesis of Ti3C2 MXene
NOTE: The reaction procedures described in this section are intended for use inside a chemical fume hood. Washing steps included in this procedure are intended to be used with ...

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The MXene synthesis and delamination procedure described in this protocol (HF/HCl/LiCl) was built from the MILD etching approach which employed a LiF/HCl (in situ HF) etchant medium26. The MILD approach allows for large Ti3C2 flakes (several &#181;m in lateral size) to be spontaneously delaminated during washing once pH ~5&#8722;6 has been attained. Compared to etching with HF alone, this results in material with higher quality and improved material properties, such as electr...

Understanding the fundamental mechanisms underlying neural circuits, and how their dynamics are altered in disease or injury, is a critical goal for developing effective therapeutics for a broad range of neurological and neuromuscular disorders. Microelectrode technologies have been widely used to elucidate neural dynamics on fine spatial and temporal scales. However, obtaining stable recordings with high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) from microscale electrodes has proven to be particularly challenging. As the dimensions of the electrodes are reduced to approach cellular scale, a corresponding rise in electrode impedance degrades signal quality1. Additionally, numerous studies have shown that rigid electrodes comprised of conventional silicon and metal electronic materials produce significant damage and inflammation in the neural tissue, which limits their usefulness for long-term recording2,3,4,5. Given these facts, there has been significant interest in developing microelectrodes with new materials which can reduce the electrode-tissue interface impedance and can be incorporated into soft and flexible form factors.
One commonly used method for reducing the electrode-tissue interface impedance is increasing the area over which ionic species in the extracellular fluid can interact with the electrode, or the &#34;effective surface area&#34; of the electrode. This can be achieved through nanopatterning6, surface roughening7, or electroplating with porous additives8,9. Nanomaterials have gained significant attention in this field because they offer intrinsically high specific surface areas and unique combinations of favorable electrical and mechanical properties10. For example, carbon nanotubes have been used as a coating to significantly reduce electrode impedance11,12,13, graphene oxide has been processed into soft, flexible free-standing probe electrodes14, and laser-pyrolyzed porous graphene has been utilized for flexible, low-impedance micro-electrocorticography (micro-ECoG) electrodes15. Despite their promise, a lack of scalable assembly methods has limited the widespread adoption of nanomaterials for neural interfacing electrodes. Carbon-based nanomaterials in particular are typically hydrophobic, and thus require the use of surfactants16, superacids17, or surface functionalization18 to form aqueous dispersions for solution-processing fabrication methods, while alternative methods of fabrication, such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD), typically require high temperatures which are incompatible with many polymeric substrates19,20,21,22.
Recently, a class of two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials, known as MXenes, has been described which offers an exceptional combination of high conductivity, flexibility, volumetric capacitance, and inherent hydrophilicity, making them a promising class of nanomaterials for neural interfacing electrodes23. MXenes are a family of 2D transition metal carbides and nitrides which are most commonly produced by selectively etching the A element from layered precursors. These are typically MAX phases with the general formula Mn+1AXn, where M is an early transition metal, A is a group 12&#8722;16 element of the periodic table, X is carbon and/or nitrogen, and n = 1, 2, or 324. Two-dimensional MXene flakes have surface-terminating functional groups that can include hydroxyl (&#8722;OH), oxygen (&#8722;O) or fluorine (&#8722;F). These functional groups make MXenes inherently hydrophilic and enable flexible surface modification or functionalization. Of the large class of MXenes, Ti3C2 has been the most extensively studied and characterized25,26,27. Ti3C2 shows remarkably higher volumetric capacitance (1,500 F/cm3)28 than activated graphene (~60&#8722;100 F/cm3)29, carbide-derived carbons (180 F/cm3)30, and graphene gel films (~260 F/cm3)31. Furthermore, Ti3C2 shows extremely high electronic conductivity (~10,000 S/cm)32, and its biocompatibility has been demonstrated in several studies33,34,35,36. The high volumetric capacitance of Ti3C2 films is advantageous for biological sensing and stimulation applications, because electrodes that exhibit capacitive charge transfer can avoid potentially harmful hydrolysis reactions.
Our group has recently demonstrated flexible, thin-film Ti3C2 microelectrode arrays, prepared using solution processing methods, which are capable of recording both micro-electrocorticography (micro-ECoG) and intracortical neuronal spiking activity in vivo with high SNR36. These MXene electrodes showed significantly reduced impedance compared to size-matched gold (Au) electrodes, which can be attributed to the high conductivity of MXene and the high surface area of the electrodes. In this protocol, we describe the key steps for fabricating planar microelectrode arrays of Ti3C2 MXene on flexible parylene-C substrates and utilizing them in vivo for intraoperative micro-ECoG recording. This method takes advantage of the hydrophilic nature of MXene, which makes possible the use of solution processing methods that are simple and scalable while not requiring the use of surfactants or superacids to achieve stable aqueous suspensions. This ease of processability may enable cost-effective production of MXene biosensors at industrial scales, which has been a major limitation to the widespread adoption of devices based on other carbon nanomaterials. The key innovation in the electrode fabrication lies in the use of a sacrificial polymeric layer to micropattern the MXene after spin-coating, a method adapted from literature on solution-processed poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) microelectrodes37, but which had not previously been described for patterning MXene. The exceptional electrical properties of Ti3C2, coupled with its processability and 2D morphology make it a very promising material for neural interfaces. In particular, Ti3C2 offers a route towards overcoming the fundamental trade-off between electrode geometric area and electrochemical interface impedance, a primary limiting factor for micro-scale electrode performance. Additionally, the fabrication procedure described in this protocol can be adapted to produce MXene electrode arrays of varying sizes and geometries for different recording paradigms, and can also easily be adapted to incorporate other conductive inks besides MXene.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>00-90 screw</td>
			<td>McMaster-Carr</td>
			<td>90910A630</td>
			<td>Skull screw around which ground wire is wrapped</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>128ch stimulation/recording controller</td>
			<td>Intan Technologies</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>A component of the neural recording system.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>175 mL polypropylene (PP) conical centrifuge tubes</td>
			<td>Falcon</td>
			<td>REF: 352076</td>
			<td>Used for washing</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>18 position 0.5 mm pitch ZIF connector</td>
			<td>Molex</td>
			<td>505110-1892</td>
			<td>Used to interface the flexible Parylene microelectrode array with the PCB adapter board.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>18 position dual row male nano-miniature (.025&#34;/.64mm) connector</td>
			<td>Omnetics Connector Corporation</td>
			<td>A79008-001</td>
			<td>Used to interface the PCB adapter board to the recording headstage.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>3ML Disposable Plastic Set Transfer Graduated Pipettes</td>
			<td>Rienar</td>
			<td>Rienar-3ML-20PCS</td>
			<td>Used for transferring etchant or MXene solutions</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>50 mL polyproylene (PP) concial centrifuge tube</td>
			<td>Falcon</td>
			<td>REF: 352070</td>
			<td>Used for washing and size selection</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Al etchant Type A</td>
			<td>Transene</td>
			<td>060-0026000-QT</td>
			<td>For removing Al etch mask layer after final Parylene-C etch.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Aluminum Powder, -325 Mesh, 99.5% (metals basis), particle size &#60; 44 &#181;m</td>
			<td>Alfa Aesar</td>
			<td>CAS: 7429-90-5</td>
			<td>Used for MAX synthesis</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>AutoCAD software</td>
			<td>Autodesk Inc.</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Design software for drawing photomasks. Free alternatives include DraftSight and LayoutEditor.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Buffered Oxide Etchant 6:1</td>
			<td>JT Baker</td>
			<td>1178-03</td>
			<td>For removing SiO2 layer to expose MXene electrode contacts at the end of the fabrication procedure.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Buprenorphine SR</td>
			<td>Wildlife Pharmaceuticals</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Analgesia for rat surgery</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Centrifuge</td>
			<td>Hermle</td>
			<td>Benchmark Z 446</td>
			<td>Used for washing and size selection</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dexdomitor</td>
			<td>Midwest Veterinary Supply</td>
			<td>193.13250.3</td>
			<td>Anesthesia for rat surgery</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Drill burr</td>
			<td>Fine Science Tools</td>
			<td>19007-07</td>
			<td>Burrs for drill</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Electric drill</td>
			<td>Foredom</td>
			<td>K.1070</td>
			<td>Micromotor drill for craniotomies</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Electron beam evaporator</td>
			<td>Kurt J. Lesker Company</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Used to evaporate Ti, Au, and SiO2 during fabrication. Most university clean rooms have this or a similar tool.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ground wire</td>
			<td>A-M Systems</td>
			<td>781500</td>
			<td>Bare silver wire</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Headspace Vial, glass</td>
			<td>Supelco</td>
			<td>REF: 27298</td>
			<td>Used for storing MXene solutions</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Hydrochloric acid (12.1N)</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>CAS: 7647-01-0</td>
			<td>Corrosive; etchant material</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Hydrofluoric Acid, (48-51% solution in H2O)</td>
			<td>Acros</td>
			<td>CAS: 7664-39-3</td>
			<td>Etchant material</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Jupiter II RIE system</td>
			<td>March Plasma Systems Inc.</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Planar RIE etching system used to etch the Parylene-C using O2 plasma. Most university clean rooms have a comparable planar RIE etching system.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Kapton standard polyimide tape, 1/4&#34;</td>
			<td>DuPont</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Used to add thickness to the Au bonding pad region of the flexible Parylene microelectrode array for insertion into the ZIF connector.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ketamine</td>
			<td>Hospital of the Univ. of Penn.</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Anesthesia for rat surgery</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>KLA P-7 Stylus Profilometer</td>
			<td>KLA Corporation</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Used the measure 2D profiles to confirm complete etching through the sacrificial parylene-C layer in step 2.4.2. Most university clean rooms have this or a comparable stylus profilometer tool.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Lithium chloride, 99% for analysis, anhydrous</td>
			<td>Acros</td>
			<td>CAS: 7447-41-8</td>
			<td>Hygroscopic; delamination material</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>MA6 mask aligner</td>
			<td>Karl Suss Microtec AG</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Used to align each photomask to the pattern on the wafer and expose the wafer to UV light. Most university clean rooms have this or a similar tool.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Micro-90 cleaning solution</td>
			<td>International Products Corporation</td>
			<td>M-9050-12</td>
			<td>Used as the anti-adhesive layer to enable removal of the sacrificial Parylene-C layer to pattern the MXene</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>NR71-3000p photoresist</td>
			<td>Futurrex Inc.</td>
			<td>NR71-3000p</td>
			<td>Negative photoresist used to define Ti/Au traces and MXene patterns in the devices.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ophthalmic ointment</td>
			<td>Midwest Veterinary Supply</td>
			<td>193.63200.3</td>
			<td>To prevent corneal drying during surgery</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Parylene deposition system</td>
			<td>Specialty Coating Systems</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Used to evaporate thin conformal films of Parylene-C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Parylene-C dimer</td>
			<td>Specialty Coating Systems</td>
			<td>980130-c-01lbe</td>
			<td>Flexible polymer used as bottom and top passivating layers for the flexible MXene devices</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Photomasks (chrome on soda lime glass)</td>
			<td>University of Pennsylvania</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Our photomasks were produced in the University clean room using a Heidelberg DWL66+ laser writer system, however several vendors manufacture photomasks from provided design files.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Povidone-iodine solution</td>
			<td>Medline</td>
			<td>MDS093901</td>
			<td>To help prevent infection around scalp incision</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Printed Circuit Board (PCB)</td>
			<td>Advanced Circuits</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Used to interface between the MXene electrode array and the measurement electronics such as the potentiostat and the Intan recording system. Advanced Circuits and other vendors manufacture and assemble PCBs based on the provided design files.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>RD6 Developer</td>
			<td>Futurrex Inc.</td>
			<td>RD6 Developer</td>
			<td>Used to develop NR71-3000p negative photoresist following UV exposure</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Reference 600 potentiostat</td>
			<td>Gamry Instruments</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Used to measure the electrodes&#39; impedance to assess quality of the devices</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Remover PG</td>
			<td>MicroChem Corp.</td>
			<td>G050200</td>
			<td>Used to remove NR71-3000p following metal deposition to perform lift-off patterning</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>RHS2000 Stim SPI interface cable</td>
			<td>Intan Technologies</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>A component of the neural recording system.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>RHS2116 amplifier board</td>
			<td>Intan Technologies</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>A component of the neural recording system.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Si wafers</td>
			<td>Wafer World</td>
			<td>2885</td>
			<td>Substrate for fabrication</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Spin Coater</td>
			<td>Cost Effective Equipment</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>For coating wafers with resists and applying the Micro-90 and MXene layers. Most university clean rooms have spin coaters.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Stereotaxic frame</td>
			<td>Kopf Instruments</td>
			<td>Model 902</td>
			<td>For positioning the rat for neurosurgery</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Teflon-coated magnetic stir bar</td>
			<td>Corning</td>
			<td>REF: 1233W95</td>
			<td>Used to stir during etching and intercalation</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Titanium carbide, 99.5% (metals basis), particle size ~2 &#181;m</td>
			<td>Alfa Aesar</td>
			<td>CAS: 12070-08-5</td>
			<td>Used for MAX synthesis</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Titanium powder, -325 mesh, 99% (metals basis), particle size &#60; 44&#181;m</td>
			<td>Alfa Aesar</td>
			<td>CAS: 7440-32-6</td>
			<td>Used for MAX synthesis</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ultrasonic bath sonicator</td>
			<td>Reynolds Tech</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>For removing metal and photoresist particles during lift-off processes to pattern metals.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>UV vis spectrophotometer</td>
			<td>ThermoScientific</td>
			<td>Evolution 201</td>
			<td>Used to determine concentration and observe absorption peak</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Zetasizer, Particle Size Analysis</td>
			<td>Malvern Panalytical</td>
			<td>Nano ZS</td>
			<td>Used to determine particle lateral size distibution</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

fabrication of ti3c2 mxene microelectrode arrays for in vivo neural recording

Implantable microelectrode technologies have been widely used to elucidate neural dynamics at the microscale to gain a deeper understanding of the neural underpinnings of brain disease and injury. As electrodes are miniaturized to the scale of individual cells, a corresponding rise in the interface impedance limits the quality of recorded signals. Additionally, conventional electrode materials are stiff, resulting in a significant mechanical mismatch between the electrode and the surrounding brain tissue, which elicits an inflammatory response that eventually leads to a degradation of the device performance. To address these challenges, we have developed a process to fabricate flexible microelectrodes based on Ti3C2 MXene, a recently discovered nanomaterial that possesses remarkably high volumetric capacitance, electrical conductivity, surface functionality, and processability in aqueous dispersions. Flexible arrays of Ti3C2 MXene microelectrodes have remarkably low impedance due to the high conductivity and high specific surface area of the Ti3C2 MXene films, and they have proven to be exquisitely sensitive for recording neuronal activity. In this protocol, we describe a novel method for micropatterning Ti3C2 MXene into microelectrode arrays on flexible polymeric substrates and outline their use for in vivo micro-electrocorticography recording. This method can easily be extended to create MXene electrode arrays of arbitrary size or geometry for a range of other applications in bioelectronics and it can also be adapted for use with other conductive inks besides Ti3C2 MXene. This protocol enables simple and scalable fabrication of microelectrodes from solution-based conductive inks, and specifically allows harnessing the unique properties of hydrophilic Ti3C2 MXene to overcome many of the barriers that have long hindered the widespread adoption of carbon-based nanomaterials for high-fidelity neural microelectrodes.

Sample micro-ECoG data recorded on a MXene microelectrode array is shown in Figure 5. Following application of the electrode array onto the cortex, clear physiologic signals were immediately apparent on the recording electrodes, with approximately 1 mV amplitude ECoG signals appearing on all MXene electrodes. Power spectra of these signals confirmed the presence of two brain rhythms commonly observed in rats under ketamine-dexmedetomidine anesthesia: 1&#8722;2 Hz slow oscillations and &#947;...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Fabrication of Ti3C2 MXene Microelectrode Arrays for In Vivo Neural Recording at JoVE.com

Fabrication of Ti3C2 MXene Microelectrode Arrays for In Vivo Neural Recording (Video) | JoVE

We describe here a method for fabricating Ti3C2 MXene microelectrode arrays and utilizing them for in vivo neural recording.

Fabrication of Ti3C2 MXene Microelectrode Arrays for In Vivo Neural Recording

Implantable microelectrode technologies have been widely used to elucidate neural dynamics at the microscale to gain a deeper understanding of the neural ...

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