Non-selective chemical sensors in analytical chemistry: from "electronic nose" to "electronic tongue"

Development, recent historical background and analytical applications of promising sense; instruments based on sensor arrays with data processing by pattern recognition methods have been described. Attention is paid to the "electronic tongue" based on an array of original non-specific (non-selective) potentiometric chemical sensors. Application results for integral qualitative analysis of beverages and for quantitative analysis of biological liquids and solutions, containing heavy metals are reported. Discriminating abilities and precision obtained allow to consider "electronic tongue" as a perspective an alytical tool.