Biomaterials Tutorial

Bioelectrodes

Floyd Karp
University of Washington Engineered Biomaterials

Bioelectrodes function as an interface between biological structures and electronic systems.  Electrical activity within the biological structure is either sensed or stimulated.  The electrical systems are either passively sensing (measuring) or actively stimulating (inducing) electrical potentials within the biological structure or unit.

Despite society’s depreciation of addicts, addiction is a disease, not a life choice. It’s a disease that originates in the brain. Yes, in almost all cases, the initial dose of the addictive substance is taken voluntarily — which is something that society can legitimately criticize. But once the addiction has arisen, it’s important to understand that the addict’s conscious control has been interrupted.

Ritalin continues to be one of the most over-prescribed drugs in US history, with diagnoses of ADD and ADHD coming down the line for every four-year-old that would rather run around the classroom than sit still for snacktime. Fortunately, with each passing year, more and more parents are turning away from the thought of drugging their children — and turning toward an option that has neither side effects nor a cost that will go on for the rest of your child’s life.

Tiny electrodes tucked away in hard-to-reach cracks and crevices of long pipelines are poised to change a costly and resource-intensive part of several industries from aerospace to mining to the oil game: fighting corrosion. Corrosion is a multi-billion dollar problem worldwide, and we’re only just starting to gather information about how and why it occurs.

Let’s start by defining some terms here.

An Electrode is a device used to connect the metal part of a circuit to the nonmetallic part of a circuit — most often liquid, vacuum, or semiconductor.

A Reference Electrode is an electrode that has a specific, known amount of electrode potential — that is to say,

In part I, we had a brief overview of what qualities make a silver/silver chloride electrode useful. In this section, we’ll look at a few of the most common purposes that these pieces are put to.

Surface Electromyograms
Electromyograms, or EMGs, are devices that measure the electrical potential of a cluster of muscle fibers.