Electropolymerization of Commercial Printed Circuit Boards with PEDOT:PSS for Biomedical Applications

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are a reliable and low-cost technology with promising applications for biomedicine. However, the biocompatibility of commercial PCB materials hinders biomedical applications. To address the biocompatibility, we compared un- and electro-polymerized commercial PCBs with Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS). We show that the electropolymerization of PEDOT: PSS using a charge density of $55.6 \text{pA}/\mu \mathrm{m}^{2}$ decreased the electrodes' impedance by at least one order of magnitude and effectively coated the exposed Cu with an average layer thickness of 560 nm. A Live/Dead fluorescence assay using primary neurons cultured for 24 hours suggests the obtention of biocompatible PEDOT:PSS coatings. This study paves the way for developing a new and more affordable PCB-based system for Lab-on-a-chip applications.