On the stability of morphology and performance of neural interfacing electrodes fabricated via CO2-snow-assisted hierarchical surface restructuring.

Overview

Authors: Alexander Blagojevic¹, Wesley Seche², Pouya Tavousi^1,3, Sina Shahbazmohamadi^1,3, Shahram Amini^1,2

ORCID iDs: Alexander Blagojevic, Pouya Tavousi, Shahram Amini

Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, United States of America
Pulse Technologies Inc. (An Integer Holdings Company), Research & Development, Quakertown, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Tescan Orsay Holding, Libušina tř., Brno-Kohoutovice, Czechia

Institutions: University of Connecticut (United States); Tescan (Czechia) (Czechia)

Journal: PloS one, volume 21, issue 7, article e0349598

Dates: received 9 July 2025; accepted 2 May 2026; published online 9 July 2026

Type: Research article · Language: English

License: CC BY

Identifiers: DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0349598 · PMID 42424375 · PMCID PMC13349186 · OpenAlex W7167789778

Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)

Status: data only

Categories: methods / tools (subfield)

MeSH: Carbon Dioxide*, Electrodes, Implanted*, Electrodes, Iridium, Microelectrodes, Neurons, Platinum, Surface Properties (* major topic)

Journal subjects: Physical Sciences, Chemistry, Electrochemistry, Engineering and Technology, Equipment, Optical Equipment, Lasers, Electrode Potentials, Industrial Engineering, Process Engineering, Industrial Processes, Manufacturing Processes, Materials Science, Material Properties, Capacitance, Nanotechnology, Nanoparticles, Materials, Mixtures, Particulates, Medicine and Health Sciences, Surgical and Invasive Medical Procedures, Functional Electrical Stimulation

Topic: Neuroscience and Neural Engineering (Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex

Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 31 references in the paper

Abstract

Long-term implantable neural interfacing devices play a critical role in treating various neurological disorders, with their functionality largely dependent on the performance of electrodes and microelectrode arrays. Femtosecond laser Hierarchical Surface Restructuring (HSR™) is an advanced surface treatment technology that significantly enhances a platinum-10% iridium (Pt-10Ir) electrode’s electrochemical performance, improving energy efficiency, specificity, and signal-to-noise ratio. Additionally, HSR™ facilitates electrode miniaturization, allowing them to be manufactured smaller, for a less invasive profile. Electrode surfaces produced via HSR™ technology contain multiscale structures, including nanoscale features that, while contributing to superior performance, are sometimes weakly bonded and may detach due to mechanical agitation during testing or implantation. This detachment could lead to a high initial performance, that may gradually decline during prolonged use. Preemptively removing these nanostructures stabilizes the electrode surface, enhancing the stability of its morphology and potentially electrochemical performance. This study introduces a novel, in-operando, CO₂-snow-assisted HSR™ process and benchmarks it against other prevalent surface cleaning methods post-fabrication, such as ultrasonic cleaning, on improving electrode stability and performance. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses indicate that all cleaning methods enhance electrode stability. However, ultrasonic cleaning was found to be more destructive compared to CO₂-snow-assisted HSR™ processing, resulting in reduced electrochemical performance. In contrast, in-operando CO₂-snow-assisted processing provided similar or superior improvements in surface stability, while preserving higher electrochemical performance in vitro and enabling a faster processing time. This study is the gateway to further assess the stability in vivo, which is the intended next step of the research.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper links to its data, not to its authors' code: see the Data section.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none, so it has no map.

Data

Datasets cited

doi:10.5061/dryad.ht76hdrwv, at Dryad; found in “Data Availability”

Data Availability

The relevant dataset is publicly accessible at the following link: https://datadryad.org/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.ht76hdrwv.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 5 authors, 8 MeSH terms, 23 references.

Cite

This paper

Blagojevic, A., Seche, W., Tavousi, P., Shahbazmohamadi, S., & Amini, S. (2026). On the stability of morphology and performance of neural interfacing electrodes fabricated via CO2-snow-assisted hierarchical surface restructuring. PloS one, 21(7), e0349598. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0349598

BibTeX

@article{blagojevic2026stability, author = {Blagojevic, Alexander and Seche, Wesley and Tavousi, Pouya and Shahbazmohamadi, Sina and Amini, Shahram}, title = {{On the stability of morphology and performance of neural interfacing electrodes fabricated via CO2-snow-assisted hierarchical surface restructuring}}, journal = {PloS one}, year = {2026}, month = jul, volume = {21}, number = {7}, pages = {e0349598}, publisher = {PLOS}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0349598}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0349598}, pmid = {42424375}, pmcid = {PMC13349186} }

RIS

TY - JOUR AU - Blagojevic, Alexander AU - Seche, Wesley AU - Tavousi, Pouya AU - Shahbazmohamadi, Sina AU - Amini, Shahram TI - On the stability of morphology and performance of neural interfacing electrodes fabricated via CO2-snow-assisted hierarchical surface restructuring T2 - PloS one J2 - PLoS One PY - 2026 DA - 2026/07/09 VL - 21 IS - 7 SP - e0349598 SN - 1932-6203 PB - PLOS DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0349598 UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0349598 LA - en ER -

CSL-JSON

{ "id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0349598", "type": "article-journal", "title": "On the stability of morphology and performance of neural interfacing electrodes fabricated via CO2-snow-assisted hierarchical surface restructuring", "container-title": "PloS one", "author": [ { "family": "Blagojevic", "given": "Alexander" }, { "family": "Seche", "given": "Wesley" }, { "family": "Tavousi", "given": "Pouya" }, { "family": "Shahbazmohamadi", "given": "Sina" }, { "family": "Amini", "given": "Shahram" } ], "container-title-short": "PLoS One", "volume": "21", "issue": "7", "page": "e0349598", "DOI": "10.1371/journal.pone.0349598", "PMID": "42424375", "PMCID": "PMC13349186", "ISSN": "1932-6203", "publisher": "PLOS", "URL": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0349598", "language": "en", "issued": { "date-parts": [ [ 2026, 7, 9 ] ] } }

Contribute

The authors of this paper can claim it, correct its record and validate its tracing map, and the maintainers of its code (its owner, or a public member of its organization) correct what it says of their repository; anyone signed in can ask for its removal. Every request goes to OSCR's own machine, which answers it; your account page follows them.

Sign in with ORCID to claim this paper as one of its authors, correct its record or validate its tracing map: when the paper's metadata lists your ORCID iD, you are recognized at once. Maintainers of its code: sign in with GitHub, then claim the repository on your account page.

Request its removal

To ask OSCR to remove this record, the copies of its authors' scripts or its tracing map, use the removal request page: signed in, you say who you are, what to remove and why, then review and confirm the request. Published rules decide every request (how).

Discussion, reproductions, activity

Discussion: questions and error reports about this paper and its code, from signed-in readers and its authors. It opens with sign-in.

Reproductions: reports from readers who ran the authors' code: what they reproduced, with which environment, commit and data. It opens with sign-in.

Activity: what happens around this paper: new versions of its record, its map's validation, discussions and reproductions. It opens with sign-in.