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• Chang, C
• Saad, B
• Surif, M
• Ahmad, MNoor
• Md Shakaff, AYeon
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• Chang, C
• Saad, B
• Surif, M
• Ahmad, MNoor
• Md Shakaff, AYeon
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• Chang, C
• Saad, B
• Surif, M
• Ahmad, MNoor
• Md Shakaff, AYeon

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Sensors 2008, 8(6), 3665-3677; doi:10.3390/s8063665

Article

Disposable E-Tongue for the Assessment of Water Quality in Fish Tanks

Chew-Cheen Chang ¹ , Bahruddin Saad ^1,* , Misni Surif ² , Mohd Noor Ahmad ³  and Ali Yeon Md Shakaff ⁴

¹ School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia ² School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia ³ School of Bioprocess Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 02600 Perlis, Malaysia ⁴ School of Computer and Communication Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 02600 Perlis, Malaysia

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 22 February 2008; in revised form: 25 March 2008 / Accepted: 25 March 2008 / Published: 1 June 2008

Download PDF Full-Text [136 KB, uploaded 16 September 2008 11:02 CEST]

Abstract: A disposable screen-printed e-tongue based on sensor array and pattern recognition that is suitable for the assessment of water quality in fish tanks is described. The characteristics of sensors fabricated using two kinds of sensing materials, namely (i) lipids (referred to as Type 1), and (ii) alternative electroactive materials comprising liquid ion-exchangers and macrocyclic compounds (Type 2) were evaluated for their performance stability, sensitivity and reproducibility. The Type 2 e-tongue was found to have better sensing performance in terms of sensitivity and reproducibility and was thus used for application studies. By using a pattern recognition tool i.e. principal component analysis (PCA), the e-tongue was able to discriminate the changes in the water quality in tilapia and catfish tanks monitored over eight days. E-tongues coupled with partial least squares (PLS) was used for the quantitative analysis of nitrate and ammonium ions in catfish tank water and good agreement were found with the ion-chromatography method (relative error, ±1.04- 4.10 %).

Keywords: E-tongue; lipid; electroactive material; water quality; pattern recognition

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