Metalloporphyrin - based Electronic Tongue: an Application for the Analysis of Italian White wines

Abstract: An Electronic Tongue system (ET) composed of “all-solid-state” potentiometricsensors was developed and applied for the identification of white wines. The sensingproperties were due to the PVC based membranes doped with several metallo-porphyrinsdeposited on the surface of glassy carbon working electrodes; potentiometric responsetowards several ions in a concentration range from 10^-5 M to 10^-1 M were studied and cross-sensitivity of sensors was estimated. The sensor array was applied both for the classificationand quantitative analysis of “Verdicchio D.O.C.” Italian dry white wines produced by ninecantinas. Peculiar parameters of white wines (namely alcoholic degree, volatile acidity, SO₂,L-Malic Acid, L-Lactic Acid and Total Polyphenols) individuated by standard analyticalmethods were compared with the values evaluated by metalloporphyrin-based ET. Thesystem satisfactory discriminates between an artificial wine control and analyzed winescoming from different cantinas and produced in different years. A satisfactory correlationbetween results of wine analysis performed by certified methods and ET response has beenobtained for SO₂, L-Malic Acid, and Total Phenols content. The developed procedureallows the monitoring of the acetic acid amount in wines and hence to control wine volatileacidity, so indicating the initial steps of wine spoilage process.