Myocardial cell pattern on piezoelectric nanofiber mats for energy harvesting

The paper presents in vitro contractile myocardial cell pattern on piezoelectric nanofiber mats with applications in energy harvesting. The cell-based energy harvester consists of myocardial cell sheet and a PDMS substrate with a PVDF nanofiber mat on. Experimentally, cultured on specifically distributed nanofiber mats, neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes are characterized with the related morphology and contraction. Previously, we have come up with the concept of energy harvesting from heart beating using piezoelectric material. A bio-hybrid energy harvester combined living cardiomyocytes, PDMS polymer substrate and piezoelectric PVDF film with the electrical output of peak current 87.5nA and peak voltage 92.3mV. However, the thickness of the cardiomyocyte cultured on a two-dimensional substrate is much less than that of the piezoelectric film. The Micro Contact Printing (μCP) method used in cell pattern on the PDMS thin film has tough requirement for the film surface. As such, in this paper we fabricated nanofiber-constructed PDMS thin film to realize cell pattern due to PVDF nanofibers with better piezoelectricity and microstructures of nanofiber mats guiding cell distribution. Living cardiomyocytes patterned on those distributed piezoelectric nanofibers with the result of the same distribution as the nanofiber pattern.