Polymer membrane electrode based potentiometric taste sensor: A new sensor to distinguish five basic tastes

Functionalized polymer membrane based potentiometric taste sensors with efficient selectivity and sensitivity was developed to mimic the mammalian tongue for measurement of basic tastes like saltiness, sourness, bitterness, sweetness and umami or savory. It may solve the real-world analytical problems arising out of inspection judgment of human sensory organ in wide area of application ranging from foodstuff recognition to environmental monitoring and pharmaceutical application. The membrane was developed using poly (vinyl alcohol) as base polymers (containing -OH as active group); glutaraldehyde (as cross linking reagent); POCl3 (for functionalization as phosphorylation). The investigation covers polymer membrane preparation, its characterization and study of taste sensing characteristics like temporal stability, response stability, response to different taste substances, and reproducibility of sensing performance. Membrane electrode based on the polymer showed distinct response patterns in terms of electric potentials for different taste substances and their sensing ability of basic tastes is highlighted in this work.