EMERGING APPLICATIONS FOR VOLTAMMETRIC ELECTRONIC TONGUES

THE PROJECT TRIES TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE LABORATORY ACCUMULATED KNOWLEDGE IN THE SUBJECT OF (BIO)ELECTRONIC TONGUES, THAT IS, THE COUPLING BETWEEN THE USE OF MATRICES OF (NON-SPECIFIC) RESPONSE SENSORS AND ADVANCED COMPUTER PROCESSING OF THE COMPLEX INFORMATION GENERATED. ESPECIALLY, THERE IS A UNIQUE TECHNOLOGY, THE ELECTRONIC TONGUE THAT USES MOLECULAR IMPRINTING POLYMERS AS RECOGNITION ELEMENTS, WHICH HAVE ALREADY BEEN SUCCESSFULLY INTEGRATED ONTO ELECTROCHEMICAL SENSORS. THIS TURNS OUT TO BE A GENERIC PROCEDURE, WHICH CAN BE APPLIED TO ANALYTES THAT THE ONLY REQUIREMENT IS THAT THEY CAN GENERATE MOLECULAR IMPRINTING MOTIFS, AND WHERE THE POSSIBLE LACK OF SELECTIVITY IS SUPPLEMENTED WITH THE BENEFITS OF THE ELECTRONIC TONGUE CONCEPT. IN THIS WAY, IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE TO SOLVE ANALYTICAL PROBLEMS A-LA-CARTE. THE GROUP HAS ACCOMPLISHED THESE OBJECTIVES WITH TWO TECHNOLOGIES, BY SYNTHESIS OF ACRYLATE POLYMER AND BY ELECTROPOLYMERIZATION. NOW IS THE TURN TO EXPLODE AND EXTEND THESE IDEAS TO CASE-STUDIES OF THE DIFFERENT FIELDS. ON THE OTHER HAND, IT IS PROPOSED TO CONTINUE THE PROGRESS IN (BIO)ELECTRONIC TONGUES, THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF WELL-KNOWN AND RELIABLE FUNCTIONING ENZYMATIC SYSTEMS, TO DETERMINE SUBSTRATES OR, ALSO, INHIBITORS. IN PARALLEL, AND FOLLOWING THE CURRENT TREND IN THE FIELD, WE SEEK TO CONTINUE EXPLORING THE USE OF ELEMENTS SUPPLIED BY NANOTECHNOLOGY, SUCH AS CARBON NANOTUBES, GRAPHENE OR METAL OR CARBON NANOPARTICLES (CARBON DOTS), TO BE INCORPORATED INTO ELECTROCHEMICAL SYSTEMS FOR BIOSENSING. EMERGING FABRICATION TECHNOLOGIES WILL BE EXPLORED IN ORDER TO SEEK A FACILITATED AND AUTOMATED PREPARATION OF SENSOR ARRAYS, AMONG OTHERS ADDITIVE PRINTING, CUTTING PLOTTER DEVICES, OR LASER SCRIBING TO PREPARE GRAPHENE PLATFORMS. LATE TREND DATA PROCESSING STRATEGIES FROM THE DEEP LEARNING EMERGING VARIANTS WILL BE CONSIDERED. IN THE DIFFERENT STUDY CASES, THE POSSIBILITIES OF APPLICATION TO EMERGING APPLICATION FIELDS WILL BE SOUGHT, SUCH AS THE WINE, FOOD AND BEVERAGE OR PHARMACEUTICAL SECTORS. SPECIALLY, THE PROJECT WILL CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING EMERGING WORKING FIELDS: (I) FOOD AUTHENTICATION, (II) ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING OF CONTAMINANTS, (III) SECURITY AND FORENSICS AND (IV) HEALTHCARE AND SPORT PERFORMANCE MONITORING.