Use of a Voltammetric Electronic Tongue for Detection and Classification of Nerve Agent Mimics

An electronic tongue (ET) based on pulse voltammetry has been used to predict the presence of nerve agent mimics in aqueous environments. The electronic tongue array consists of eight working electrodes (Au, Pt, Ir, Rh, Cu, Co, Ni and Ag) encapsulated on a stainless steel cylinder. Studies including principal component analysis (PCA), artificial neural networks (fuzzy ARTMAP) and partial least square techniques (PLS) have been applied for data management and prediction models. For instance the electronic tongue is able to discriminate the presence of the nerve agent simulants diethyl chlorophosphate (DCP) and diethyl cyanophosphate (DCNP) from the presence of other organophosphorous derivatives in water. Finally, PLS data analysis using a system of 3 compounds and 3 concentration levels shows a good accuracy in concentration prediction for DCP and DCNP in aqueous environments.