Discrimination of tea by means of a voltammetric electronic tongue and different applied waveforms

A new sensor technology, an electronic tongue based on voltammetry has been developed at Linkoping University. Three different metallic working electrodes are used in combination with a set of voltage "pulses", a waveform, to separate different samples. In this paper, three different waveforms are investigated. This is done through a study with nine different teas. Multivariate data analysis ((MVDA), principal component analysis (PCA)) is used to evaluate the data (the recorded current responses). The waveforms are large amplitude pulse voltammetry (LAPV), small amplitude pulse voltammetry (SAPV), and staircase voltammetry. Each method discriminated between the tea samples to some extent, but differently from each other. Best discrimination is achieved when the combination LAPV and staircase are merged together. When SAPV is included in the combination a worse separation is observed. It is clearly the case that more waveforms do not automatically lead to more information. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.