Pressure-Sensitive Adhesive Combined with Paper Spray Mass Spectrometry for Low-Cost Collection and Analysis of Drug Residues

Abstract

Illicit drug use causes over half a million deaths worldwide every year. Drugs of abuse are commonly smuggled through customs and border checkpoints and, increasingly, through parcel delivery services. Improved methods for detection of trace drug residues from surfaces are needed. Such methods should be robust, fieldable, sensitive, and capable of detecting a wide range of drugs. In this work, commercially produced paper with a pressure-sensitive adhesive coating was utilized for the collection and analysis of trace drug residues by paper spray mass spectrometry (MS). This modified substrate was used to combine sample collection of drug residues from surfaces with rapid detection using a single paper spray ticket. The all-in-one ticket was used to probe different surfaces commonly encountered in forensic work including clothing, cardboard, glass, concrete, asphalt, and aluminum. A total of 10 drugs (acetyl fentanyl, fentanyl, clonazolam, cocaine, heroin, ketamine, methamphetamine, methylone, U-47700, and XLR-11) were evaluated and found to be detectable in the picogram range using a benchtop mass spectrometer and in the low nanogram range using a portable ion trap MS. The novel approach demonstrates a simple yet effective sampling strategy, allowing for rapid identification from difficult surfaces via paper spray mass spectrometry.

Applications of ambient ionization mass spectrometry in 2021: An annual review

“…The resulting method enabled the differentiation of THC from CBD with an LOD of 6 ng/mL and comparable accuracy, precision and working range to an UHPLC‐UV method used as a benchmark. In another study utilizing paper spray for illicit drug analysis, the authors used a paper substrate with a pressure‐sensitive adhesive coating for the collection of trace residues of drugs 57 . The paper can be used to swab suspect surfaces to collect residues invisible to the eye and then be positioned directly in front of the MS inlet for rapid analysis.…”

Portable testing techniques for the analysis of drug materials

“…Combining swabbing techniques with PSI‐MS has been used for drugs, explosives, and toxins in a variety of settings (Ma et al, 2015; Nguyen et al, 2021). This is important as forensically relevant surfaces could be swabbed, making the collection process non‐destructive and straightforward.…”

“…This is important as forensically relevant surfaces could be swabbed, making the collection process non‐destructive and straightforward. The use of a commercial paper strip containing a pressure‐sensitive adhesive has been explored to swab surfaces such as clothing, glass and concrete before analysis is completed with a portable PSI‐MS (Nguyen et al, 2021). Distribution environments could benefit considerably from this type of technology and the use in prisons, where drugs are often smuggled via absorption into paper letters, is apparent (Nguyen et al, 2021).…”

Portable Digital Linear Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer Based on Separate-Region Corona Discharge Ionization Source for On-Site Rapid Detection of Illegal Drugs

“…Ion trap mass spectrometer has been considered an optimum choice because of its moderate vacuum requirements, simple structure, and tandem analysis capability [ 9 ]. The development of ambient ionization methods without sample preparation or separation such as desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) [ 10 , 11 ], direct analysis in real-time (DART) [ 11 , 12 ], photoionization (PI) [ 13 , 14 , 15 ], low temperature plasma (LTP) [ 16 , 17 ], paper spray ionization (PSI) [ 18 , 19 ], further paved the way for MS technology from the laboratory use to onsite applications. The feasibility of combining these ambient ionization methods and miniaturized ion trap mass spectrometer for rapid on-site illegal drugs detection has been demonstrated [ 13 , 14 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ].…”