Electrochemistry (particularly applied using nanosensors), biosensing, neuroanalytical applications of biosensors with recognition elements for the neurotransmitter dopamine, material science (particularly applied to nanocrystalline, conducting diamond films) and in vivo electrochemistry. These interests stem from my PhD research, which developed fouling-resistant physically small carbon electrodes for in vivo dopamine detection in a rat brain. In this study, physically small carbon electrodes were applied to detect the neurotransmitter dopamine in vivo. Neurotransmitter detection using naked carbon electrodes is fraught with challenges such as fouling from high-molecular–weight hydrophilic proteins, peptides and lipids, which prevent dopamine from accessing the electrode surface, thereby significantly attenuating the dopamine oxidation signal. To overcome this, the study applied a covalent p-phenylacetate film onto the electrodes to determine resistance to fouling. Another method of enabling fouling resistance was the hydrogenation of the sp2 carbon surface of the electrodes using plasma-enhanced microwave chemical vapor deposition and radio frequency remote plasma deposition. A third aspect of the study was to assemble a chemical vapor deposition reactor to deposit nanocrystalline diamond using methane in the presence of hydrogen.
I have a long-standing fascination with studying heavy metal mobilization in soil and translocation into plants. My Master’s thesis titled Investigations into the Lami Municipal Dump as a source of heavy metal contamination was jointly awarded the best Master’s Thesis in the then School of Pure and Applied Sciences, at the University of the South Pacific in 2002. This was the first detailed investigative exercise in the dumpsite
