Machine learning and chemometrics for electrochemical sensors: moving forward to the future of analytical chemistry

Electrochemical sensors and biosensors have been successfully used in a wide range of applications, but systematic optimization and nonlinear relationships have been compromised for electrode fabrication and data analysis. Machine learning and experimental designs are chemometric tools that have been proved to be useful in method development and data analysis. This minireview summarizes recent applications of machine learning and experimental designs in electroanalytical chemistry. First, experimental designs, e.g., full factorial, central composite, and Box-Behnken are discussed as systematic approaches to optimize electrode fabrication to consider the effects from individual variables and their interactions. Then, the principles of machine learning algorithms, including linear and logistic regressions, neural network, and support vector machine, are introduced. These machine learning models have been implemented to extract complex relationships between chemical structures and their electrochemical properties and to analyze complicated electrochemical data to improve calibration and analyte classification, such as in electronic tongues. Lastly, the future of machine learning and experimental designs in electrochemical sensors is outlined. These chemometric strategies will accelerate the development and enhance the performance of electrochemical devices for point-of-care diagnostics and commercialization.