Abstract

Similarly to the sense of taste or smell, which is derived from triggering multiple different signals in receptors of human tongue or in the nasal cavity, also arrays of cross-reactive sensors give a rise to a characteristic response pattern specific for each different analytes. While the artificial receptors and sensors are rarely selective, the fingerprint-like response pattern is analyte specific and substitutes the sensor selectivity. Thus, the sensing of a particular analyte or a group of analytes using cross-reactive sensor arrays eliminates the need for analyte-specific sensors, which are difficult to design and synthesize. Response patterns from optical sensor arrays can be utilized in the development of low-cost analytical methods suitable for on-site analyses with high sensitivity, which is especially useful in pharmaceutical and biomedical areas that require the detection of very low concentration of analytes in complex biological samples. This chapter focuses on the use of optical sensor arrays in pharmaceutical and biomedical analyses and pattern recognition, and quantitative analysis of the results using chemometric methods.