posted on 2022-07-22, 17:05authored byLi Wang, Xingyuan Xu, Jun Chen, Weiguang Su, Feng Zhang, Anqing Li, Chao Li, Chonghai Xu, Yu Sun
Measuring myocardial contractility is of great value
in exploring
cardiac pathogenesis and quantifying drug efficacy. Among the biosensing
platforms developed for detecting the weak contractility of a single
layer of cardiomyocytes (CMs), thin brittle metal membrane sensors
with microcracks are highly sensitive. However, their poor stability
limits the application in long-term measurement. Here, we report a
high stability crack sensor fabricated by deposition of a 105 nm thick
Ag/Cr with microcracks onto a carbon nanotubes-polydimethylsiloxane
(CNT-PDMS) layer. This brittle-tough bilayer crack sensor achieved
high sensitivity (gauge factor: 108 241.7), a wide working
range (0.01–44%), and high stability (stable period >2 000 000
cycles under the strain caused by a monolayer of CMs). During 14-day
continuously monitoring CMs culturing and drug treatment testings,
the device demonstrated high sensitivity and stability to record the
dynamic change caused by contractility of the CMs.