Analysis of synthetic cathinones and associated psychoactive substances by ion mobility spectrometry

Keywords

detection and characterization of cathinone drugs, analysis of psychoactive substances, IMS, ion mobility, ion mobility spectrometry, high performance ion mobility spectrometry, ESI, Electrospray Ionization, IMS-MS, Ion mobility mass spectrometry

Analysis of Synthetic Cathinones

Analysis of synthetic cathinones and associated psychoactive substances by ion mobility spectrometry The detection and characterization of cathinone drugs (commonly marketed as “bath salts”) are complicated by the ever-growing size of the family. In this paper, various IMS techniques, including the standard (63)Ni ionization, are shown to be rapid and effective methods for the screening and identification of cathinones and associated psychoactive compounds. Electrospray ionization (ESI) high performance IMS (HPIMS) offers advantages in direct sample ionization and higher resolution, while mass spectrometry (MS) coupled to the HPIMS technique gives the added benefit of identification of ion peaks in products with mixtures of closely related cathinones.