Recognition of organic compounds in aqueous solutions by chemiluminescence on an array of catalytic nanoparticles

Here we report a novel aerosol chemiluminescence (CL)-based sensor array containing six kinds of catalytic nanoparticles for the pattern recognition of organic compounds in aqueous solutions, which functions as a mammalian tongue. The catalytic oxidization of sample aerosols produces distinct CL response patterns on the array, which are highly repeatable and can be differentiated by linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Fourteen organic compounds including three saccharides, two organic acids, and nine amino acids, which are common small biomolecules, have been classified successfully by their characteristic patterns. A training matrix (6 nanoparticles x 14 analytes x 5 replicates) has been generated and used to identify 126 unknown solution samples at three different concentrations with an accuracy of 100%. The applicability of this array for real-life samples has been demonstrated by discriminating eight beverages. The stable and reversible response of this array, combined with its simple instrumentation and long lifetime, indicates the promise of this array for real-world application.