Hi,
I will buy platinum/iridium electrodes, for single unit recording and stimulation. Since I am going to re-use them in several sessions:
1) How can I clean them?
2) Should I buy some equipment to clean the electrodes?
Thank you
We use contact lenses solution to clean our tungsten electrodes for single unit recording. Just dip it into the solution over night.
If there are too much tissue on the tip, we will use ultra sound cleaner to clean it. But you need to be careful, ultra sound cleaner might damage the electrode too.
Thank you!
I will check with the manifacturer if their platinum/tungsten electrodes can be damaged by the ultrasound cleaner.
Dear Chan, do you put the electrode directly in the cleaner without the basket?
Hi Paola, here are our routines to clean the electrode.
1. Fill the basket with DI water.
2. Dip the electrode into the water.
3. Turn on the ultra-sound cleaner for 60 seconds.
4. Check the electrode under the microscope.
5. Repeat 3 and 4 until most of the tissue is gone.
6. Check the impedance of the electrode, since sometimes the ultra-sound cleaner could damage the isolation layer of the electrode.
7. Dip the electrode into the multi-purpose contact solution over night for deep cleaning and sterilization.
8. Re-check the electrode. Restore the electrode if everything is fine.
Good luck with your experiments. :）
-Chen-
Dear Paola, the cleaning procedure described by Chan sounds very good! This is similar to what I recommended to you via email. He just used another kind of cleaner, but it seems to be similar to the enzyme cleaner I recommended. Additionally, I would use a cleaning temperature below 40 degrees Celsius to avoid that the proteins denature and are glued to the electrode surface. Before using the ultrasound cleaner I would check if cleaning the tip in enzyme cleaner is already enough and removes all proteins from the tip. I usually recommend to put the electrode tip in the cleaner immediately after use, if the proteins have not dried yet. If this is not possible store the electrode tip in distilled water until you have time to use the enzyme cleaner. Sometimes this is enough to clean the electrode tip and ultrasound is not urgently required. Let me know if you have any further question or need additional information. I would be very pleased to help you. Best wishes, Dirk
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