Chemically Cross-Linked Carbon Nanotube Films Engineered to Control Neuronal Signaling

Abstract

In recent years, the use of free-standing carbon nanotube (CNT) films for neural tissueengineering have attracted tremendous attention. CNT films show large surface area and high electrical conductivity that combined to flexibility and biocompatibility may promote neuron growth and differentiation while stimulating neural activity. Besides, adhesion, survival, and growth of neurons can be modulated through chemical modification of CNTs. Axonal and synaptic signaling can also be positively tuned by these materials. Here we describe the ability of free-standing CNT films to influence neuronal activity. We demonstrate that the degree of cross-linking between the CNTs has a strong impact on the electrical conductivity of the substrate, which, in turn, regulates neural circuit outputs.

Carbon nanotube micropillars trigger guided growth of complex human neural stem cells networks

“…S3 in the ESM)) contributes with a further function related to the communication of cells whose neurites are anchored at any point of the same pillar. Although further studies are needed, this hypothesis is also supported by recent publications [23,24].…”

“…Furthermore, such electrically conductive cues can also maintain and promote neuronal electrical activity in cultured cell networks, and mimic neural processes when organized into bundles [21,22]. Recently, it has been reported that ECM conductance is one important electrical cue in neuronal spreading [23,24].…”

Freestanding nanomaterials for subcellular neuronal interfaces

“…On the other hand, photoelectrochemical stimulation is achieved by directly eliciting an action potential through laser pulse stimulation ( Figure 2 A) ( Parameswaran et al., 2018 ). Optical nanomaterials come in various forms, such as nanowires ( Fang et al., 2018 ), nanoparticles ( Zhang et al., 2016 ), nanowire templates ( Jiang et al., 2016 ), nanotubes ( Barrejon et al., 2019 ), and even quantum dots ( Efros et al., 2018 ). One example of a widely used optical nanomaterial in biological applications is silicon-based nanostructures, which are desired for their high tunability.…”

Covalent Cross‐Linking of 2H‐MoS2 Nanosheets

“…Covalently cross‐linked structures are a very attractive strategy for the formation of homo/heterostructures made by design, with control over the size and chemical nature of the crosslinker [15, 16] . This type of approach has been explored for cross‐linked homostructures of carbon nanotubes (1D–1D) [17–20] and graphene derivatives (2D–2D), [21–23] as well as mixed‐dimensional heterostructures of fullerenes and graphene derivatives (0D–2D) [24–26] and carbon nanotubes and graphene oxide (1D–2D) [27, 28] . In comparison with the C‐based nanomaterials, the covalent cross‐linking of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) is relatively underexplored, most likely due to a less developed, even if quickly growing, toolbox of chemical reactions for the covalent modification of TMDCs [29–36] .…”