Structure Analysis of the Interfering Substance N-methyl-2-phenylpropan-1-amine of Methamphetamine in Wastewater / 法医学杂志

OBJECTIVES@#To analyze the chemical structure of the interfering substance that affects the result of methamphetamine analysis in wastewater.@*METHODS@#A combination of GC-MS and liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS) was used to analyze the mass spectrum characteristics of the interfering substance that affects the result of methamphetamine analysis and to infer its possible structure. Liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole-mass spectrometry (LC-TQ-MS) was used to confirm the control material.@*RESULTS@#Using LC-QTOF-MS in positive electrospray ionization (ESI+) mode, the mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) of quasi-molecular ion in the MS1 mass spectrometry of interfering substance was identical to that of methamphetamine, indicating that the interfering substance was probably an isomer of methamphetamine. The MS2 mass spectra obtained at three collision energies of 15 V, 30 V and 45 V were highly similar to methamphetamine, suggesting that the interfering substance contained methylamino and benzyl groups. Further analysis using GC-MS in electron impact (EI) ionization mode showed that the base peak in the mass spectrum of the interfering substance was at m/z 44. The interfering substance was confirmed to be N-methyl-2-phenylpropan-1-amine by compared with the standard reference.@*CONCLUSIONS@#The chemical structure of N-methyl-2-phenylpropan-1-amine is highly similar to methamphetamine, which is easy to cause interference for the detection of trace amounts of methamphetamine in wastewater using LC-TQ-MS. Therefore, in the actual analysis, the chromatographic retention time can be used to distinguish between N-methyl-2-phenylpropan-1-amine and methamphetamine.

Automatic analytical approach for the determination of 12 illicit drugs and nicotine metabolites in wastewater using on-line SPE-UHPLC-MS/MS / 药物分析学报

In this study,we developed a novel on-line solid phase extraction (SPE)-ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS)-based analytical method for simulta-neously quantifying 12 illicit drugs and metabolites (methamphetamine,amphetamine,morphine,co-deine,6-monoacetylmorphine,benzoylecgonine,3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine,3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine,cocaine,ketamine,norketamine,and methcathinone) and cotinine(COT) in wastewater samples.The analysis was performed by loading 2 mL of the sample onto an Oasis hydrophilic-lipophilic balance cartridge and using a cleanup step (5％ methanol) to eliminate interference with a total run time of 13 min.The isotope-labeled internal standard method was used to quantify the target substances and correct for unavoidable losses and matrix effects during the on-line SPE process.Typical analytical characteristics used for method validation were sensitivity,linearity,precision,repeatability,recovery,and matrix effects.The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ)of each target were set at 0.20 ng/L and 0.50 ng/L,respectively.The linearity was between 0.5 ng/L and 250 ng/L,except for that of COT.The intra-and inter-day precisions were ＜10.45％ and 25.64％,respec-tively,and the relative recovery ranged from 83.74％ to 162.26％.The method was used to analyze various wastewater samples from 33 cities in China,and the results were compared with the experimental re-suits of identical samples analyzed using off-line SPE.The difference rate was between 19.91％and-20.44％,and the error range could be considered acceptable.These findings showed that on-line SPE is a suitable alternative to off-line SPE for the analysis of illicit drugs in samples.