Influence of the Flow Rate in an Automated Microfluidic Electronic Tongue Tested for Sucralose Differentiation

Autor(es)

Braunger, Maria L. ^[1] ; Fier, Igor ^[2] ; Shimizu, Flavio M. ^[1] ; de Barros, Anerise ^[3] ; Rodrigues, Varlei ^[1] ; Riul, Jr., Antonio ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Estadual Campinas, UNICAMP, Dept Appl Phys, Gleb Wataghin Inst Phys IFGW, BR-13083859 Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[2] Quantum Design Latin Amer, BR-13080655 Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[3] Univ Estadual Campinas, UNICAMP, Lab Funct Mat, Inst Chem IQ, BR-13083970 Campinas, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: SENSORS; v. 20, n. 21 NOV 2020.
• Citações Web of Science: 0

Resumo

Incorporating electronic tongues into microfluidic devices brings benefits as dealing with small amounts of sample/discharge. Nonetheless, such measurements may be time-consuming in some applications once they require several operational steps. Here, we designed four collinear electrodes on a single printed circuit board, further comprised inside a straight microchannel, culminating in a robust e-tongue device for faster data acquisition. An analog multiplexing circuit automated the signal's routing from each of the four sensing units to an impedance analyzer. Both instruments and a syringe pump are controlled by dedicated software. The automated e-tongue was tested with four Brazilian brands of liquid sucralose-based sweeteners under 20 different flow rates, aiming to systematically evaluate the influence of the flow rate in the discrimination among sweet tastes sold as the same food product. All four brands were successfully distinguished using principal component analysis of the raw data, and despite the nearly identical sucralose-based taste in all samples, all brands' significant distinction is attributed to small differences in the ingredients and manufacturing processes to deliver the final food product. The increasing flow rate improves the analyte's discrimination, as the silhouette coefficient reaches a plateau at similar to 3 mL/h. We used an equivalent circuit model to evaluate the raw data, finding a decrease in the double-layer capacitance proportional to improvements in the samples' discrimination. In other words, the flow rate increase mitigates the formation of the double-layer, resulting in faster stabilization and better repeatability in the sensor response. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 15/14836-9 - Aplicação da tecnologia de impressão 3D para desenvolvimentos microfluídicos
• Beneficiário: Maria Luisa Braunger Fier
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado