Discrimination of different aromatic compounds in water, ethanol and wine with a thin film sensor array

A thin film semiconductor sensor array has been employed to discriminate several aromatic compounds in water, ethanol and wine. These compounds are aromas or off-odours usually found in wines: acetic acid, ethyl acetate, acetaldehyde, trichloroanisole (TCA) and SO_2. The concentrations of these compounds were in the range of mg/l except in the case of TCA that was in the ng/l range. Principal component analysis (PCA) and radial basis neural networks (RB-NN) were performed in the data. The results showed that despite the strong influence of ethanol the system could discriminate correctly the compounds.