Pagona Papakonstantinou is a Professor at the Nanotechnology and Integrated BioEngineering Centre of the University of Ulster. She leads a group which specializes on the fabrication of low dimensional carbon nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes, nanotips, graphene, diamond nanorods and on the comprehensive investigation of their physical and physicochemical properties for further integration into devices. A recent highlight of the graphene work has been the integration of vertical graphene sheets into a platform, for elucidating the electrocatalytic properties of graphene edges (http://www.nano.org.uk/news/oct2008/latest1647.htm). The work has created a new class of graphene based electrodes for a wide range of applications in the electroanalytical, biosensing, energy storage/conversion sectors and could essentially compete their vertically aligned carbon nanotubes counterparts.

The interactions between biological molecules and nanostructured electrodes are probed in light of developing protocols that will provide a foundation for future biosensing devices. Highlights of recent work in the area of electrochemistry, funded by EC (DESYGN-IT) and Glaxo Smithkline, is the discovery of superstructures consisting of MoSI NWs cross-linked with thiolated proteins, which yielded highly sensitive electrochemical immunosensors.  Previous work includes the demonstration of the first disposable label free DNA sensor based on a graphite pencil electrode modified with carbon nanotubes. She is co-investigator in a recently awarded £1.99 M 2008 NI-ROI Cross Border Project to conduct research in graphene based point of care sensors. Pagona received a distinguished research fellowship from the University of Ulster in 2003.

Research efforts are also directed on the introduction of atomic scale defects in carbon nanotubes and graphenes through plasma and chemical approaches in order to alter the physical and chemical properties of the carbon nanostructures. PP has established an international reputation on probing the local atomic environment of carbon based materials by synchrotron light.  She has been successful in obtaining continuous Research Council Facility Time as lead applicant in major European research facilities such as Diamond and CCLRC in UK, Max Lab in Sweden, Bessy in Germany and Elletra in Italy. In a series of papers the details of the interaction of foreign molecules such as nitrogen, oxygen and chlorine with the graphene lattice have been investigated by synchrotron based spectroscopies (NEXAFS, PEEM, XPS, VB).