Lanza M, Acton WJ, Jürschik S, Sulzer P, Breiev K, Jordan A, Hartungen E, Hanel G, Märk L, Mayhew CA, Märk TD. Distinguishing two isomeric mephedrone substitutes with selective reagent ionisation mass spectrometry (
SRI-MS).
J Mass Spectrom 2013;
48:1015-8. [PMID:
24078242 DOI:
10.1002/jms.3253]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2013] [Revised: 07/11/2013] [Accepted: 07/11/2013] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
The isomers 4-methylethcathinone and N-ethylbuphedrone are substitutes for the recently banned drug mephedrone. We find that with conventional proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS), it is not possible to distinguish between these two isomers, because essentially for both substances, only the protonated molecules are observed at a mass-to-charge ratio of 192 (C12 H18NO(+)). However, when utilising an advanced PTR-MS instrument that allows us to switch the reagent ions (selective reagent ionisation) from H3O(+) (which is commonly used in PTR-MS) to NO(+), O2(+) and Kr(+), characteristic product (fragment) ions are detected: C4H10N(+) (72 Da) for 4-methylethcathinone and C5 H12N(+) (86 Da) for N-ethylbuphedrone; thus, selective reagent ionisation MS proves to be a powerful tool for fast detection and identification of these compounds.
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