An array of ZnO thin film sensors was obtained by thermal oxidation of physical vapor deposited thin Zn films. Different conditions of the thermal treatment (duration and temperature) were applied in view of obtaining ZnO sensors with different gas sensing properties. Films having undergone a long thermal treatment exhibited high responses to low ethanol concentrations, while short thermal treatments generally led to sensors with high ethanol sensitivity. The sensor array was used to distinguish among Tequilas and Agave liquor. Linear discriminant analysis and the multilayer perceptron neural network reached 100% and 86.3% success rates in the discrimination between real Tequila and Agave liquor and in the identification of Tequila brands, respectively. These results are promising for the development of an inexpensive tool offering low complexity and cost of analysis for detecting fraud in spirits.
Keywords: Tequila identification; ZnO thin films; gas sensor array; pattern recognition.