I-Corps: Commercialization Feasibility of a Novel Electronic Tongue

对水和饮料的质量和安全性的日益关注，提出了对便携式、易于使用且便宜的感测装置的迫切需要。使用现有的实验室仪器，如原子吸收光谱法、电感耦合等离子体质谱法和X射线荧光法进行重金属检测是昂贵、费力和耗时的。 I-Corps团队开发了一种便携式电化学化学传感系统（E-Tongue），该系统使用一次性电化学传感器结合模式识别技术来检测重金属，模仿人类味觉系统。这种快速、用户友好、低成本和便携式的电子舌将很容易用于水和饮料的现场测试。这项技术的经济影响预计将是相当显著的，因为这一技术平台将解决水和饮料分析仪器的巨大市场。I-Corps团队已经开发了一个用于有毒重金属检测的电子舌原型。它由一个紧凑的恒电位仪装置和一次性丝网印刷电极组成。E-Tongue原型将接受培训，以识别目标元素，并预测它们在水和含有缓冲溶液的不同饮料基质中的浓度。 E-Tongue演示最初将侧重于检测铅、镉、汞和砷。未来将扩大检测能力，以包括铬、镍、铜和锌等其他重金属。将通过与使用标准分析方法获得的结果进行比较来测试和评估E-Tongue的性能。将确定几个性能参数，如选择性、检测限、重复性、精密度和准确度

Growing concerns about the quality and safety of water and beverages, present an immediate need for sensing devices that are portable, easy to use, and inexpensive. Use of existing laboratory instruments such as atomic absorption spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy, and x-ray fluorescence for heavy metal testing is expensive, laborious and time-consuming. The I-Corps team has developed a portable electrochemical chemical sensing system (E-Tongue) that mimics the human gustatory system using disposable electrochemical sensors combined with pattern recognition techniques for detecting heavy metals. The rapid, user-friendly, low cost, and portable E-Tongue will lend itself readily for on-site testing of water and beverages. The economic impact of this technology is expected to be quite significant since this technological platform will address the large market for water and beverage analysis instrumentation.The I-Corps team has developed an E-Tongue prototype for toxic heavy metal detection. It consists of a compact potentiostat device with disposable screen printed electrodes. The E-Tongue prototype will be trained to identify target elements as well as predict their concentrations in water and different beverage matrices containing buffer solutions. The E-Tongue demonstrations will initially focus on detecting lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic. The detection capabilities will be expanded in the future to include other heavy metals including chromium, nickel, copper, and zinc. The E-Tongue performance will be tested and evaluated by comparing it with results obtained using standard analytical methods. Several performance parameters such as selectivity, limit of detection, repeatability, precision and accuracy will be determined