A nanophase material and organic dye modified colorimetric sensor array for the discrimination of baijiu

In the present study, we fabricated a 3 × 3 colorimetric sensor array using nanomaterials/dyes as sensing dots to discriminate 8 commercial baijiu samples. Sensing dots can cross-respond to baijiu samples, enabling color changes of the sensor array and subsequently providing special fingerprints. Eight baijiu samples were successfully discriminated using principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) without misclassification. A radial basis function neural network (RBFN) was employed to determine the fitting relationship between the predicted samples and the actual samples. From all the evidence, we draw the conclusion that this 3 × 3 NP-dye colorimetric discrimination system can perform successful distinction of baijiu. Moreover, a separation tendency of different baijiu samples was shown via alcoholic-strength (38° and 52°) without detection of alcoholic-strength. This effort may benefit quality control of baijiu in the market and in mass-production in the factory.