Carbon: the Next Silicon?

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) spectroscopies are well-known characterization techniques that reveal the molecular details of a sample non-invasively.  The authors discuss how NMR can provide useful information on the microstructure of carbon and its surface properties and explain how C-MEMS/C-NEMS technology can be explored for building improved NMR microdevices.The authors highlight the manipulation of fluids and particles by dielectrophoresis and the use of carbon electrodes for dielectrophoresis in Lab-on-a-Chip.The use of these electrodes in sample preparation through electrical polarization of a sample for identification, manipulation, and lysis of bioparticles is also discussed and they introduce a new generation of neural prosthetics based on glassy carbon micromachined electrode arrays. The tuning of the electrical, electrochemical and mechanical properties of these patternable electrodes for applications in bio-electrical signal recording and stimulation, and results from in-vivo testing of these glassy carbon microelectrode arrays is reported, demonstrating a quantifiable superior performance compared to metal electrodes.