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. 2014:2014:4252-5.
doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2014.6944563.

Microscopic imaging of electrical current distribution at the electrode-electrolyte interface

Wenyan Jia, Jiamin Wu, Di Gao, Mingui Sun

Microscopic imaging of electrical current distribution at the electrode-electrolyte interface

Wenyan Jia et al. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2014.

Abstract

A method to directly visualize electrical current distribution at the electrode-electrolyte interface of a biopotential electrode is presented in this paper. A voltage-responsive florescent material is first coated on the surface of a bioelectrode. Then, an electric potential is used to activate the release of the florescent material while a camera acquires images at the electrode-electrolyte interface. This imaging method allows observation of microscopic electrical current distribution at the active area of the electrode, providing a new tool to optimize bioelectrode design. Our computational and experimental data demonstrate the feasibility of the florescent imaging method.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
(a) Schematic illustration of the electrode-electrolyte interface. The current flows through the interface from left to right. The electrode consisted of metal C. The electrolyte contains cations of the electrode metal C+ and anions A−; (b) Illustration of an irregular electrode-electrolyte interface.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
(a) Prototype of the electrode; (b) Installed electrode on scalp; (c)Scanning electron microscope picture of the microteeth.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
(a) Layout of the tested electrode and the ground; (b) Microscopic imaging in which the red and black clips represent the positive and ground electrodes, respectively.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
(a) Microscopic image of a single bioelectrode tooth (partial view); (b) finite element mesh of (a). The length of the scale bar is 0.4mm.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Images of electrical current distribution around the tooth: (a) the first image taken approximately one second after the fluorescent release; (b) the second image; (c) the fifth image. Note that the fluorescent pattern in the lower left corner of the images comes from another part of the electrode.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Simulated electrical current distribution around a tooth tip. The length of the scale bar is 0.4mm.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
Image of electrical current distribution for a non-uniformly coated tooth.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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