E-tongue for ecological monitoring purposes: The case of microcystins detection

The present paper deals with the application of the potentiometric E-tongue system for water toxicity estimation in terms of qualitative and quantitative cyanobacterial microcystin toxins (MCs) detection. The data obtained by potentiometric multisensor system were correlated to the MCs content detected by standard cromatographic tecnique UHPLC-DAD, as far as by colorimetric enzimatic approach. The prediction of Microcystine-LR released by toxic Microcystis aeruginosa strains was possible with mean relative error of validation of 0.164 μg/l using PLS regression. Moreover, the possibility to distinguish toxic and non toxic Microcystis aeruginosa strains in potable water by means of E-tongue was demonstrated.