USE OF A POLYMER MEMBRANE SENSOR ARRAY FOR QUANTIFICATION AND DISCRIMINATION OF LIQUID FOOD

摘要

Recently, an electronic tongue composed of a sensor array and data processing routines was introduced as an analytical tool for quantification and classification of liquid media containing multiple components. Here, a quantification of saltiness and sourness and a discrimination between wines were investigated using the electronic tongue composed of a polymer membrane sensor array (PMSA) with principal component analysis (PCA). The PMSA was composed of two cation-sensitive membranes, two anion-sensitive membranes, and one hydrogen ion-sensitive membrane, of which the membrane potential is changed corresponding to concentrations of cations or anions in aqueous solutions. PCA was performed on the responses of the PMSA to artificial taste solutions composed of NaCl and citric acid. While the first principal component (PC) was highly correlated to concentration of NaCl, the second PC was correlated to concentration of citric acid only at low concentrations of NaCl. PCA was performed on the responses of the PMSA to six types of wines made from different grapes. Red wines and white wines were separated linearly, and discrimination among red wines was possible