An integrated artificial neural network/polymer-based pH sensor: a new engineering perspective to conducting polymer technology

A new approach towards the development of a novel pH sensor using electrically conducting polymers is addressed. The approach is based on computer analysis of different experimental works in which various conducting polymer-based pH electrodes are examined. In this work, we present a novel conducting polymer pH sensor by which the pH in solutions with different pH values can be detected. Since re-usability and reproducibility of conducting polymer sensors have been themselves controversial issues, we discuss the application of artificial intelligence (AI) methods, artificial neural networks (ANNs) in particular, to address and examine such an issue on the performance of the introduced pH sensor. The introduced integrated ANN/conducting polymer pH sensing system has shown much better reproducibility in detecting pH of different acidic and basic media over the conventional polymeric pH detectors. The system can be designed for pH detection in any operational environment in an online/real time manner. Having access to such a system enables us to have access to the history of a desirable chemical process with respect to the extent of the acidity of the process.