MULTICOMPONENT ANALYSIS OF HEAVY-METAL CATIONS AND INORGANIC ANIONS IN LIQUIDS BY A NONSELECTIVE CHALCOGENIDE GLASS SENSOR ARRAY

A first step towards a multisensor system, based on ion-selective elec trodes, for the analysis of complex solutions is presented. An array f ormed by chalcogenide glass electrodes has been utilized for the quant itative analysis of solutions containing seven ionic species (heavy me tal cations and inorganic anions). An important step in working with a sensor array is the data analysis strategy The array data have been p rocessed by multiple linear regression, partial least squares and arti ficial neural network. By using neural networks the best performances were obtained. It is worth noting that zinc and sulphate have been mea sured although no specific sensors for these ions were present in the array.