Yeast-Based Direct Catalytic Ethanol Fuel Cell Biosensors: A Batch Analysis Apparatus Combined with Chemometrics for Qualitative Carbohydrate Detection

A novel strategy for the qualitative analysis of carbohydrates is developed, utilizing a direct catalytic fuel cell (DCFC) as a sensor, combined with chemometric tools for processing the resulting response curves. Specifically, carbohydrate solutions were incubated with yeast to produce alcohol, and the corresponding current decay trends were measured using a direct catalytic fuel cell designed for ethanol detection. Multiple data processing approaches were then evaluated. Initially, the entire set of data points from the response curves was analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA). To reduce analysis time, chemometric processing was subsequently restricted to the initial portion of the response curves. Finally, to enhance the results, the current decay curves were analyzed in conjunction with the linear fitting parameters derived from the quasi-linear region of the initial response curves, utilizing the common dimension (ComDim) algorithm.