Monitoring spontaneous electrical activity in cultured neural networks using vertically aligned nanotube arrays

We present the electrical monitoring of cultured living neural cells using vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNT) as an extracellular electrode material in a microelectrode array (MEA). The carbon nanotubes are grown using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) resulting in 3-18 mum long nanotubes with diameters of 10-40 nm.