Development of a conducting polymer cell impedance sensor

Research in to label free methods for biological analysis have brought interesting developments. Cell impedance spectroscopy has been one of the promising outcomes. Here we show the development of an 8-well impedance measurement setup and studied the use of conducting polymers as electrode material in cell impedance spectroscopy. We have developed devices using PEDOT:PSS electrodes and shown its advantages (lower impedance and faster to reach electrochemical equilibrium) over conventional materials, such as gold. It is observed through electrochemical analysis that the lower interfacial impedance is due to the low charge transfer resistance of PEDOT:PSS. MDCK cell proliferation experiments were performed using both types of electrode materials to provide a comparative result. We applied electrical modeling methods to understand the cell–substrate interactions and shown its applications in cell impedance spectroscopy. This study presents the development and advantages of cell impedance spectroscopy using conducting polymer electrodes.