Fabrication of gold nanopillars on gold interdigitated impedance electrodes for biological applications

Gold nanopillars have been successfully fabricated on top of interdigitated gold electrodes deposited on a Pyrex substrate and these were used for cytotoxicity monitoring on immortalized cells through the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy technique. These nanopillars were fabricated via contact metal deposition. E-beam lithography was used to define the pattern of nanopillars with dimensions of 150nm diameter and 500nm of distance between their edges in a honeycomb-like structure. These dimensions together with a, relatively, low aspect ratio (50nm tall) have been chosen in the hope that cell adhesion will be promoted. Cell adhesion to these novel nanopillars is important as their ultimate use will be for cytotoxicity testing of cell cultures. This novel tool could potentially increase the sensitivity of this kind of analysis compared to its plain counterpart.