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A Colorimetric Membrane-Based Sensor with Improved Selectivity towards Amphetamine

Due to their simplicity, speed and low cost, chemical spot tests are increasingly demanded for the presumptive identification of illicit drugs in a variety of contexts such as point-of-care assistance or prosecution of drug trafficking. However, most of the colorimetric reactions used in these tests...

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Autores principales: Jornet-Martínez, Neus, Campíns-Falcó, Pilar, Herráez-Hernández, Rosa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8588055/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34771122
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules26216713
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author Jornet-Martínez, Neus
Campíns-Falcó, Pilar
Herráez-Hernández, Rosa
author_facet Jornet-Martínez, Neus
Campíns-Falcó, Pilar
Herráez-Hernández, Rosa
author_sort Jornet-Martínez, Neus
collection PubMed
description Due to their simplicity, speed and low cost, chemical spot tests are increasingly demanded for the presumptive identification of illicit drugs in a variety of contexts such as point-of-care assistance or prosecution of drug trafficking. However, most of the colorimetric reactions used in these tests are, at best, drug class selective. Therefore, the development of tests based on chemical reactions with improved discrimination power is of great interest. In this work, we propose a new colorimetric assay for amphetamine (AMP) based on its reaction with solutions of alkaline gold bromide to form an insoluble yellow–orange derivative. The resulting suspensions are then filtered onto nylon membranes and the precipitate collected is used for the visual identification of AMP. The measurement of the absorbance of the membranes by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy also allows the quantification of AMP in a simple and rapid way, as demonstrated for different synthetic and drug street samples. On the basis of the results obtained, it was concluded that the proposed procedure is highly selective towards AMP, as this compound could be easily differentiated from other common drugs such as methamphetamine (MET), ephedrine (EPH), scopolamine (SCP) and cocaine (COC).
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spelling pubmed-85880552021-11-13 A Colorimetric Membrane-Based Sensor with Improved Selectivity towards Amphetamine Jornet-Martínez, Neus Campíns-Falcó, Pilar Herráez-Hernández, Rosa Molecules Article Due to their simplicity, speed and low cost, chemical spot tests are increasingly demanded for the presumptive identification of illicit drugs in a variety of contexts such as point-of-care assistance or prosecution of drug trafficking. However, most of the colorimetric reactions used in these tests are, at best, drug class selective. Therefore, the development of tests based on chemical reactions with improved discrimination power is of great interest. In this work, we propose a new colorimetric assay for amphetamine (AMP) based on its reaction with solutions of alkaline gold bromide to form an insoluble yellow–orange derivative. The resulting suspensions are then filtered onto nylon membranes and the precipitate collected is used for the visual identification of AMP. The measurement of the absorbance of the membranes by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy also allows the quantification of AMP in a simple and rapid way, as demonstrated for different synthetic and drug street samples. On the basis of the results obtained, it was concluded that the proposed procedure is highly selective towards AMP, as this compound could be easily differentiated from other common drugs such as methamphetamine (MET), ephedrine (EPH), scopolamine (SCP) and cocaine (COC). MDPI 2021-11-05 /pmc/articles/PMC8588055/ /pubmed/34771122 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules26216713 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Jornet-Martínez, Neus
Campíns-Falcó, Pilar
Herráez-Hernández, Rosa
A Colorimetric Membrane-Based Sensor with Improved Selectivity towards Amphetamine
title A Colorimetric Membrane-Based Sensor with Improved Selectivity towards Amphetamine
title_full A Colorimetric Membrane-Based Sensor with Improved Selectivity towards Amphetamine
title_fullStr A Colorimetric Membrane-Based Sensor with Improved Selectivity towards Amphetamine
title_full_unstemmed A Colorimetric Membrane-Based Sensor with Improved Selectivity towards Amphetamine
title_short A Colorimetric Membrane-Based Sensor with Improved Selectivity towards Amphetamine
title_sort colorimetric membrane-based sensor with improved selectivity towards amphetamine
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8588055/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34771122
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules26216713
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