Carbon: The Next Silicon?

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) spectroscopies are well-known characterization techniques that reveal the molecular details of a sample non-invasively. The authors discuss how NMR can provide useful information on the microstructure of carbon and its surface properties and explain how C-MEMS/C-NEMS technology can be explored for building improved NMR microdevices. The authors highlight the manipulation of fluids and particles by dielectrophoresis and the use of carbon electrodes for dielectrophoresis in Lab-on-a-Chip. The use of these electrodes in sample preparation through electrical polarization of a sample for identification, manipulation, and lysis of bioparticles is also discussed and they introduce a new generation of neural prosthetics based on glassy carbon micromachined electrode arrays. The tuning of the electrical, electrochemical and mechanical properties of these patternable electrodes for applications in bio-electrical signal recording and stimulation, and results from in-vivo testing of these glassy carbon microelectrode arrays is reported, demonstrating a quantifiable superior performance compared to metal electrodes.