Taste Sensor Using Membrane Impedance Change

Abstract

Impedance changes in lipid membranes by basic taste substances were measured. A multichannel taste sensor developed by us is based on potentiometry, then sensitivity to nonelectrolytes and weak electrolytes is lower than that to strong electrolytes. There is a possibility to detect nonelectrolytes as increase of membrane resistance because of adsorption of chemicals to the membrane by performing the impedance measurement which is represented by a combination of resistance and capacitance. In this work, sucrose, a nonionic taste substance, could be detected as increase of membrane resistance and capacitance. Therefore, taste sensing based on impedance measurement will be effective for detection of taste substances of nonelectrolytes, and the highly efficient, humanlike taste-sensing system will be realized by combination with the conventional taste sensor.