Analysis of Psychoactive Cathinones and Tryptamines by Electrospray Ionization Atmospheric Pressure Ion Mobility Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

The ability to use positive ion monitoring mode with an atmospheric pressure ion mobility time-of-flight mass spectrometer (APIM(tof)MS) to detect psychoactive cathinones and tryptamines from aqueous phase samples was evaluated. The study used a traditional electrospray ionization (ESI) source for sample introduction and ionization. A total of four cathinones (mephedrone, butylone, 4-Me-PPP, and 4-MEC) and five tryptamines (5-EtO-DPT, 5-EtO-DALT, 5-EtO-MIPT, 5-EtO-ALCHT, and 5-EtO-2MALET) were investigated, and we report on parent ions, collision induced dissociation (CID) fragment ions, reduced mobility (Ko), mass flight times, and detection limits obtained from a single instrument run for the psychoactive substances. Detection limits reported ranged from 3 to 11 μM concentration for the compounds studied. This detection limit range corresponded to 1-5 ng of material needed for improved detection on the instrument. This article demonstrates that it was possible to use a single instrument platform for the separation, detection, and identification of cathinones and tryptamines in less than 1 min. The application holds great promise for detecting and identifying a new class of drugs often referred to as "bath salts" or "legal highs" distributed over the Internet.

Ion mobility spectrometry as a fast screening tool for synthetic cannabinoids to uncover drug trafficking in jail via herbal mixtures, paper, food, and cosmetics

“…Especially for drug analysis, IMS proved to be very versatile and was applied for the analysis of classical drugs both in forensic science and forensic toxicology; [96][97][98][99][100][101][102] the analysis of psilocin and psilocybin in mushrooms; 103 the analysis of MDMA, MDEA, methamphetamine, cocaine, and clenbuterol in hair samples; [104][105][106] analysis of volatile drug markers of cocaine, MDMA, and THC in air samples; 107 and the analysis of benzodiazepines. 108 In the last few years, a number of NPS have been successfully analyzed using IMS such as cathinones, [109][110][111][112] tryptamines, 109,110,112 synthetic cannabinoids 8,111,112 and phenethylamines. 111,112 The selectivity of the mobile IMS is limited and some publications reported that analytes with nearly identical chemical structure like the synthetic cannabinoids cannot be distinguished.…”

The role of diode array ultraviolet detection for the identification of synthetic cathinones

“…Various detection methods have been reported which aid in the identification of synthetic cathinones. These include colourimetric detection, immunochemical detection, gas chromatography‐electron ionization‐mass spectrometry (GC‐EI‐MS) detection, gas chromatography‐chemical ionization‐tandem mass spectrometry (GC‐CI‐MS/MS), GC‐EI‐MS/MS, gas chromatography‐infrared detector (GC‐IRD), ultra‐high performance liquid chromatography‐ultraviolet‐electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (UHPLC‐UV‐ESI‐MS), high performance liquid chromatography‐electrospray ionization‐mass spectrometry (HPLC‐ESI‐MS) with in source dissociation, UHPLC‐ESI‐MS/MS, liquid chromatography‐electrospray ionization‐quadrupole time of flight‐mass spectrometry (LC‐ESI‐QTOF‐MS), UHPLC‐ESI‐Q‐Orbitrap‐MS, capillary electrophoresis‐ultraviolet‐electrospray ionization‐time of flight‐mass spectrometry (CE‐UV‐ESI‐TOF‐MS), CE‐ESI‐MS, capillary electrochromatography‐ultraviolet (CEC‐UV), supercritical fluid chromatography‐ultraviolet (SFC‐UV), ultra‐high performance supercritical fluid chromatography‐electrospray ionization‐tandem mass spectrometry (UHPSFC‐ESI‐MS/MS), direct analysis in real time‐mass spectrometry (DART‐MS, ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), ESI‐IMS‐MS/MS, ESI‐IMS‐TOF‐MS, Raman, screen‐printed electrochemical sensors, infrared (IR), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy …”

Rapid screening of 35 new psychoactive substances by ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) and direct analysis in real time (DART) coupled to quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (QTOF‐MS)

“…and Sysoev et al . utilized atmospheric pressure ion mobility time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (APIM(tof)MS) in the analysis of emerging psychoactive substances and the drift times, reduced mobility, and detection limits for each substance were determined . A 63 Ni‐IMS has been also used for the detection and characterization of these arising substances by Armenta et al .…”