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conferenceseries.com
March 20-22, 2017 Orlando, USA
3rd International Conference on
Smart Materials & Structures
Volume 6, Issue 2 (Suppl) J Material Sci Eng
ISSN: 2169-0022 JME, an open access journal Smart Materials 2017
March 20-22, 2017
Microfluidic-enabledelectrochemical studiesofboron-dopedultrananocrystallinediamondmicroelectrodes
for chronic neurochemical sensing
An-Yi Chang, Gaurab Dutta and Prabhu U Arumugam
Louisiana Tech University, USA
Electrochemical microsensors play an important role in investigating the effect of neurochemicals in human brain function.
Abnormal levels of neurochemicals cause several neurodegenerative diseases. The current microelectrodes foul rapidly in brain
microenvironment and results in significant reduction in chemical sensitivity and sensor’s useful lifetime. Here, we present boron-
doped ultrananocrystalline diamond (BDUNCD) microelectrodes that could aid in long-termmonitoring of neurochemicals because
of their wide electrochemical potential window, extremely low background current and excellent chemical inertness. The research
goal is to reduce the rate of electrode fouling arising from reaction byproducts (e.g., melanin) and extend the lifetime to several weeks,
which does not exist now. We microfabricated a custom microfluidic platform to study the BDUNCD surface fouling mechanism
by depositing and mapping silver particles on BDUNCD microelectrode surfaces that were fouled at different conditions. The rate
of fouling was studied using Fast Scan Cyclic Voltammetry (FSCV) and Amperometry (AM) techniques. For the first time, in situ
electrode cleaning methods were developed to extend the electrode lifetime by >4-fold. Finally, chemical sensitivity enhancements
were investigated by modifying BDUNCD with carbon nanotubes (CNT) and polymer coatings. For this study, we developed a
droplet microfluidic device to study the changes in sensitivity and response time to two neurochemicals (dopamine and serotonin)
using three different microelectrode surfaces.
Biography
An-Yi Chang is currently pursuing his PhD with his major in Micro- and Nanoscale Systems at Louisiana Tech University, USA. He has earned his MS in Chemical En-
gineering from Louisiana Tech University, USA. His research emphasis on biological microfluidics, particularly, designing microfluidics to study cell reactions and drug
release in microenvironments. Presently, he is working in Institute for Micromanufacturing (IFM) and concentrating on developing microfluidics for on-chip biosensing of
neurochemical sensing with boron-doped nanocrystalline diamond microelectrodes (BDUNCD).
An-Yi Chang et al., J Material Sci Eng 2017, 6:2 (Suppl)