Fabrication of a metal-cored multi-barrelled microiontophoresis assembly

A method is described for fabrication of 7-barrelled microiontophoresis electrodes with a center barrel of platinum-coated tungsten. The electrodes require a minimum of expensive apparatus and can be fabricated in an hour or two. The electrodes have low recording impedance (typically 100 k omega and low resistance iontophoresis barrels (typically 20-50 M omega). Compared to electrodes with a micropipette recording barrel, these electrodes are practically noise-free and can pass ionotophoretic currents of up to 200 nA without an appreciable increase in recording noise.