Carbon nanotube-coated silicone as a flexible and electrically conductive biomedical material

Artificial cell scaffolds that support cell adhesion, growth, and organization need to be fabricated for various purposes. Recently, there have been increasing reports of cell patterning using electrical fields. We fabricated scaffolds consisting of silicone sheets coated with single-walled (SW) or multi-walled (MW) carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and evaluated their electrical properties and biocompatibility. We also performed cell alignment with dielectrophoresis using CNT-coated sheets as electrodes. Silicone coated with 10 μg/cm2 SWCNTs exhibited the least sheet resistance (0.8 kΩ/sq); its conductivity was maintained even after 100 stretching cycles. CNT coating also improved cell adhesion and proliferation. When an electric field was applied to the cell suspension introduced on the CNT-coated scaffold, the cells became aligned in a pearl-chain pattern. These results indicate that CNT coating not only provides electro-conductivity but also promotes cell adhesion to the silicone scaffold; cells seeded on the scaffold can be organized using electricity. These findings demonstrate that CNT-coated silicone can be useful as a biocompatible scaffold.