Bioinspired integrated triboelectric electronic tongue

Jiaming Liu; Jingui Qian; Murtazt Adil; Yali Bi; Haoyi Wu; Xuefeng Hu; Zuankai Wang; Wei Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41378-024-00690-9

Bioinspired integrated triboelectric electronic tongue

Microsyst Nanoeng. 2024 May 8:10:57. doi: 10.1038/s41378-024-00690-9. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Jiaming Liu^#¹, Jingui Qian^#¹, Murtazt Adil², Yali Bi¹, Haoyi Wu², Xuefeng Hu¹, Zuankai Wang³, Wei Zhang²

Affiliations

¹ Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Measuring Theory and Precision Instruments, School of Instrumental Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, 230009 Hefei, Anhui China.
² School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, 510006 Guangzhou, Guangdong China.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnical University, Hong Kong SAR, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

An electronic tongue (E-tongue) comprises a series of sensors that simulate human perception of taste and embedded artificial intelligence (AI) for data analysis and recognition. Traditional E-tongues based on electrochemical methods suffer from a bulky size and require larger sample volumes and extra power sources, limiting their applications in in vivo medical diagnosis and analytical chemistry. Inspired by the mechanics of the human tongue, triboelectric components have been incorporated into E-tongue platforms to overcome these limitations. In this study, an integrated multichannel triboelectric bioinspired E-tongue (TBIET) device was developed on a single glass slide chip to improve the device's taste classification accuracy by utilizing numerous sensory signals. The detection capability of the TBIET was further validated using various test samples, including representative human body, environmental, and beverage samples. The TBIET achieved a remarkably high classification accuracy. For instance, chemical solutions showed 100% identification accuracy, environmental samples reached 98.3% accuracy, and four typical teas demonstrated 97.0% accuracy. Additionally, the classification accuracy of NaCl solutions with five different concentrations reached 96.9%. The innovative TBIET exhibits a remarkable capacity to detect and analyze droplets with ultrahigh sensitivity to their electrical properties. Moreover, it offers a high degree of reliability in accurately detecting and analyzing various liquid samples within a short timeframe. The development of a self-powered portable triboelectric E-tongue prototype is a notable advancement in the field and is one that can greatly enhance the feasibility of rapid on-site detection of liquid samples in various settings.

Keywords: Biosensors; Electrical and electronic engineering.