Determination of Inorganic Ion Profiles of Illicit Drugs by Capillary Electrophoresis

Abstract

A portable capillary electrophoresis instrument with dual capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C D) was used to determine the inorganic ionic profiles of three pharmaceutical samples and precursors of two illicit drugs (contemporary samples of methylone and para-methoxymethamphetamine). The LODs ranged from 0.10 μmol/L to 1.25 μmol/L for the 10 selected cations, and from 0.13 μmol/L to 1.03 μmol/L for the eight selected anions. All separations were performed in less than 6 min with migration times and peak area RSD values ranging from 2 to 7%. The results demonstrate the potential of the analysis of inorganic ionic species to aid in the identification and/or differentiation of unknown tablets, and real samples found in illicit drug manufacture scenarios. From the resulting ionic fingerprint, the unknown tablets and samples can be further classified.

Determination of topiramate by capillary electrophoresis with capacitively‐coupled contactless conductivity detection: A powerful tool for therapeutic monitoring in epileptic patients

“…To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach, plasma samples from patients under treatment with TPM were analyzed according to the procedure described. It is important to mention that while the combination of CE‐C 4 D has been previously used for the analysis of small molecules including pharmaceutical compounds such as sildenafil/vardenafil , caffeine/paracetamol/ibuprofen , or antibiotics the application to serum samples is rarely reported. Figure shows the results obtained from 10 patients under treatment with TPM.…”

Contactless conductivity detection for analytical techniques: Developments from 2016 to 2018

“…Gathering this information might be important in forensic analysis and methods for concurrent determination of inorganic cations and anions in amphetamine type drug samples were developed using a portable CE‐C 4 D for potential on‐site applications. The developed methods were applied in determination of ionic profiles of the laboratory‐made drugs methylone and para‐methoxymethamphetamine .…”

Application of capillary electrophoresis with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (CE‐C4D): An update

“…Evans et al () recently described a portable CE‐C 4 D instrument for the analysis of the ionic profiles of pharmaceutical tablets and synthetic drugs. The separations were performed in <6 min, using running buffer consisting of 20 mmol L −1 MES/HIS and 4.5 mol L −1 18‐crown‐6 at pH 6.05 for cation analysis and 20 mmol L −1 Tris, 10 mmol L −1 MES and 0.2 mmol L −1 cetyltrimethylammonium hydroxide at pH 8.12 for anion analysis.…”