Use of an Electronic Tongue System to Detect Methylisoborneol in Distilled Water

Abstract

An electronic tongue (ET) system consisting of conducting polymer sensors was employed to detect 2‐methylisoborneol (MIB) in distilled water. MIB is a tainting compound and known to cause undesirable tastes and odours in water and aquaculture farming. Samples of distilled water with different concentrations of MIB were analysed in order to evaluate the capabilities of the ET system. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that for higher concentrations of MIB (50 and 100 ng⋅L−1) the ET could separate the tainted samples into distinct clusters. Clusters of untainted and tainted samples with lower concentrations (bellow 10 ng⋅L−1) overlapped and resulted in a single cluster. Nevertheless, close grouping between repeated tests indicated that the ET system response is reproducible.