Sensor array aims to mimic human tongue

Abstract

The human sense of taste can identify sweet, sour, salty, and bitter substances, but it usually can't relay information on the exact chemical composition of these substances. Such chemical identification, though, is a goal of scientists around the world who are trying to develop artificial taste sensors that mimic the human tongue. The latest report in this field comes from a research team in Texas that has devised a sensor array that can simultaneously detect several chemical species in solution—an early step in the development of an tongue [f. Am. Chem. Soc., 120,6429 (1998)] Another sensory mimic—the electronic nose, being developed in several other labs—can detect volatile molecules in the air. But since many chemicals of interest, such as those in food and beverages, are not easily transported into the vapor phase, there needs to be a way of detecting combinations of them in solution, says John T. McDevitt, associate professor of chemistry at ...