Osteoblastic cells trigger gate currents on nanocrystalline diamond transistor

•For adhered SAOS-2 cells, nanocrystalline H-diamond transistors exhibit about 100× increased gate currents.•After cell delamination the transistors return to original state.•Triggering effect is attributed to ions released from cells due to the H-diamond surface vicinity.•This well reproducible effect could be used for sensitive electrical detection of cell adhesion quality.

We show the influence of osteoblastic SAOS-2 cells on the transfer characteristics of nanocrystalline diamond solution-gated field-effect transistors (SGFET) prepared on glass substrates. Channels of these fully transparent SGFETs are realized by hydrogen termination of undoped diamond film. After cell cultivation, the transistors exhibit about 100× increased leakage currents (up to 10 nA). During and after the cell delamination, the transistors return to original gate currents. We propose a mechanism where this triggering effect is attributed to ions released from adhered cells, which depends on the cell adhesion morphology, and could be used for cell culture monitoring.

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