Professor Buck is not accepting graduate students at this time.

The research program includes investigations in four major research areas of analytical chemistry: membrane and non-classical interfacial electrochemistry, transport processes in neutral- carrier and in mixed-conductor systems, design and microfabrication of flexible in vivo and in vitro sensors, and biomedical applications of sensors, especially microsensors.

Passive membrane electrochemical research aims at learning about equilibrium and kinetic processes of ion and electron penetration and transport - how charge carriers partition into, and pass through, membranes. Time dependences of space charge, concentrations, field and potential profiles, internal and external to membranes and thin films, receive great attention. Presently analysis techniques include galvanostatic, potentiometric and potentiodynamic measurements, and impedance spectroscopic measurements from D.C. to the Megahertz region, to characterize bulk, layers, and interfacial transport. The latter were pioneered in this department since 1967. Thin films studied include solid, single crystals of ionic and electronic "mixed" conductivity types, glasses, liquid ion exchangers, synthetic polymer ion exchangers, polymers with dissolved salts, and liquid insulators.

New investigations include development of selective amperometric electrodes that use coupled-coenzymes with enzymatic specificity for biologically important oxidations. These are aimed at sensors for ischemic events in tissue, especially in myocardium during anaerobic metabolism accompanying infarctions and during fibrillation: sensors for lactate, pyruvate, creatinine, and creatine phosphokinase. Continuing research projects use microcells for enzyme analyses.

The biomedical sensor program is a thrust within the Duke / UNC-Chapel Hill / NC State / Case Western Reserve Consortium on Emerging Cardiovascular Technologies. Here passive membranes are optimized to permit complete microfabrication using the methods of silicon chip manufacture. Array electrodes on flexible Kapton polyimide substrates are the product for use in the myocardium or on the epicardial surface.

The ischemia projects are collaborations with Drs. Timothy A. Johnson and Wayne E. Cascio in UNC Medical School, Department of Cardiology. Recent work includes new microsensors for pH, pK+ and lactate, used simultaneously, in rabbit papillary muscles during induced ischemic events.