Qualitative and quantitative monitoring of drinking water through the use of a smart electronic tongue

Abstract

The aim of this work was to evaluate a smart electronic tongue device as an alternative for qualitative and quantitative monitoring of drinking water. The smart electronic tongue consisted of a voltametric polypyrrole sensor array, linked with a multi-channel electronic system (multipotentiostat) based on PSoC (programable system on chip) technology controlled by a smartphone with a data acquisition and control app. This device was used in the monitoring of drinking water from the Sincelejo city water supply system; also, water samples collected and analyzed by the public health agency were used. The voltammetric measurements carried out with the smart electronic tongue showed cross-sensitivity of the polypyrrole sensor array, which allowed the discrimination of the samples through of principal component analysis by artificial neural networks. In addition, the voltammetric signals registered with the smart electronic tongue allowed, through partial least square (PLS) by artificial neural networks analysis, estimating the concentrations of some important analytes in the evaluation of the physicochemical quality of drinking water with R2 values higher than 0.70. The results allowed to conclude that the smart electronic tongue can be a valuable analytical tool that allows, in a single measure, to perform qualitative and quantitative chemical analysis (alkalinity, calcium, residual chlorine, chlorides, total hardness, phosphates, magnesium, and sulfates), it is also a fast, portable method that can complement traditional analyzes.