Lithium intercalated molybdenum disulfide-coated cotton thread as a viable nerve tissue scaffold candidate

The use of conductive and biocompatible neural scaffolds is an attractive strategy for nerve tissue regeneration. Herein, a conductive molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) thread based scaffold was developed by incorporating MoS2 nanoflakes onto common cotton threads, and its viability for nerve tissue application was explored. The two-dimensional nature of the exfoliated MoS2 flakes served to provide high surface coverage on the thread. After electrochemical lithium ion intercalation, the MoS2 thread exhibited a conductivity of 9.4 × 101 S m-1 in the dry state. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results confirmed the partial transformation of the MoS2 crystal structure on the thread from 2H phase to metastable semimetallic 1T phase. Pheochromocytoma cells PC 12 and neuroblastoma hybrid cells NG108-15 were found to proliferate on these MoS2 thread scaffolds over a test period of 3 days, indicating that the conductive MoS2 threads were biocompatible and capable of supporting cell growth. Additionally, the incorporation of MoS2 nanoflakes did not impede the wicking properties of thread significantly. Overall, our study showed that the MoS2-coated thread has remarkable properties as scaffold material including, high permeability, good conductivity and good biocompatibility, making it an attractive neural scaffold candidate for nerve tissue regeneration.