A brittle-tough bilayer crack sensor achieved high sensitivity (gauge factor: 108 241.7), a wide working range (0.01-44%), and high stability (>2,000,000 cycles) for monitoring cardiomyocyte contractility.
A novel Ag/Cr on CNT-PDMS crack sensor demonstrates high sensitivity and stability for long-term monitoring of cardiomyocyte contractility.
Effect estimate: gauge factor: 108 241.7
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.
Wang et al. (2022) studied Cardiomyocyte contractility. Ag/Cr with microcracks onto a carbon nanotubes-polydimethylsiloxane (CNT-PDMS) layer crack sensor was evaluated on Sensitivity and stability of the crack sensor (gauge factor: 108 241.7). A brittle-tough bilayer crack sensor achieved high sensitivity (gauge factor: 108 241.7), a wide working range (0.01-44%), and high stability (>2,000,000 cycles) for monitoring cardiomyocyte contractility.