Zeitschrift für analytische und bioanalytische Techniken

Abstrakt

Designing a Simple Electronic Tongue for Fermentation Monitoring

Matthias Gerstl, Martin Joksch and Guenter Fafilek

A method for monitoring a biotechnological fermentation using cyclic voltammetry in combination with chemometrics, commonly termed electronic tongue, is proposed. A simple palladized palladium electrode showed excellent sensitivity to glucose concentrations ranging from 0 to 9 g/L in a yeast fermentation medium (pH 5.3, 0.07 M chloride). This electrode is also sensitive to ethanol, but not able to separate it from the glucose signal. To separately quantify mixtures of glucose and ethanol as the product of yeast fermentations at least one additional electrode with different sensitivities is needed. Platinized platinum shows the required features. Long term stability is still an obstacle for application.