Associate Professor, Curtin University
Sensors and Electrochemistry
BSc(Hons)PhD, MICI, FRSC, CChem
Damien Arrigan joined Curtin University of Technology in December 2009, where he is setting up a new research group in the Nanochemistry Research Institute. He studied Analytical Science at NIHE Dublin (now Dublin City University) (1982-1986) and worked in the biotechnology industry (1986-88) prior to undertaking his PhD studies at University College Cork, Ireland (1988-1992) in the area of chemically modified electrodes. After postdoctoral research at the National Microelectronics Research Centre, Cork (1992-1993) and at the University of Southampton, UK (1993-1995), he was a Lecturer in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Salford, UK (1995-2001). In 2001 he joined the Tyndall National Institute, Cork as Senior Staff Scientist (2001-2005) and Group Head (2005-2009), where he developed a large, well-funded group working on miniaturised electrochemical sensors as well as leading the Life Sciences Interface activity. Research funding was sourced from open competitions via Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the European Commission. In 2001 he was honoured with the SAC Silver Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry – Analytical Division for his research on calixarene-based and polymer-modified electrodes. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2008. He has supervised to completion 15 higher degrees by research, including 11 PhDs.
Damien Arrigan’s research interests are in analytical chemistry and its boundaries with electrochemistry, especially the development of new sensing and detection methods and devices. Early interests included calixarene receptors, modified electrode surfaces (organothiol monolayers; electropolymerised films) and microfabricated electrode structures for sensing applications. More recently he has concentrated on exploration of the analytical utility of electrochemistry at liquid-liquid (oil-water) interfaces. Miniaturisation of these interfaces down to the nanoscale offers numerous opportunities for chemical and biochemical sensing. Thus nanopores and nanoscale electrochemistry are under development as well as study of the behaviour of biological macromolecules of relevance in nanomedicine as disease biomarkers. Finally, microfluidic liquid-liquid interfaces are opening up various new avenues for detection and sensing of molecules.
M.D. Scanlon, J. Strutwolf, A. Blake, D. Iacopino, A.J. Quinn, D.W.M.
Arrigan, Ion-transfer electrochemistry at arrays of nano-interfaces between
immiscible electrolyte solutions confined within silicon nitride nanopore
membranes, Analytical Chemistry, accepted for publication May 2010.
G. Herzog, P. Eichelmann-Daly, D.W.M. Arrigan, Electrochemical behaviour of
denatured haemoglobin at the liquid|liquid interface, Electrochemistry
Communications, 12 (2010) 335–337.
J. Strutwolf, M. Manning, D.W.M. Arrigan, Investigation of potential
distribution and the influence of ion complexation on diffusion potentials
at aqueous-aqueous boundaries within a dual-stream microfluidic structure,
Analytical Chemistry, 81 (2009) 8373–8379.
Y.H. Lanyon, G. De Marzi, Y.E. Watson, A.J. Quinn, J.P. Gleeson, G. Redmond,
D.W.M. Arrigan, Fabrication of nanopore array electrodes by focused ion beam
milling, Analytical Chemistry, 79 (2007) 3048-3055.
D.W.M. Arrigan, Nanoelectrodes, nanoelectrode arrays and their applications,
Analyst, 129 (2004) 1157–1165.