Single-Step Fabrication Method toward 3D Printing Composite Diamond–Titanium Interfaces for Neural Applications

Owing to several key attributes, diamond is an attractive candidate material for neural interfacing electrodes. The emergence of additive-manufacturing (AM) of diamond-based materials has addressed multiple challenges associated with the fabrication of diamond electrodes using the conventional chemical vapor deposition (CVD) approach. Unlike the CVD approach, AM methods have enabled the deposition of three-dimensional diamond-based material at room temperature. This work demonstrates the feasibility of using laser metal deposition to fabricate diamond–titanium hybrid electrodes for neuronal interfacing. In addition to exhibiting a high electrochemical capacitance of 1.1 mF cm–2 and a low electrochemical impedance of 1 kΩ cm2 at 1 kHz in physiological saline, these electrodes exhibit a high degree of biocompatibility assessed in vitro using cortical neurons. Furthermore, surface characterization methods show the presence of an oxygen-rich mixed-phase diamond–titanium surface along the grain boundaries. Overall, we demonstrated that our unique approach facilitates printing biocompatible titanium–diamond site-specific coating-free conductive hybrid surfaces using AM, which paves the way to printing customized electrodes and interfacing implantable medical devices.