The need for agile and proper identification of drugs of abuse has encouraged the scientific community to improve and to develop new methodologies. The drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is still widely used due to its hallucinogenic effects. The use of voltammetric methods to analyze narcotics has increased in recent years, and the possibility of miniaturizing the electrochemical equipment allows these methods to be applied outside the laboratory; for example, in crime scenes. In addition to portability, the search for affordable and sustainable materials for use in electroanalytical research has grown in recent decades. In this context, employing paper substrate, graphite pencil, and silver paint to construct paper-based electrodes is a great alternative. Here, a paper-based device comprising three electrodes was drawn on 300 g/m 2 watercolor paper with 8B pencils, and its efficiency was compared to the efficiency of a commercially available screen-printed carbon electrode. Square wave voltammetry was used for LSD analysis in aqueous medium containing 0.05 mol/L LiClO 4. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.38 and 1.27 μmol/L, respectively. Both electrodes exhibited a similar voltammetric response, which was also confirmed during analysis of a seized LSD sample, with recovery of less than 10%. The seized samples were previously analyzed by GCMS technique, employing the full scan spectra against the software spectral library. The electrode selectivity was also tested against 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and methamphetamine. It was possible to differentiate these compounds from LSD, indicating that the developed paper-based device has potential application in forensic chemistry analyses.
The application of electrochemical analysis within the forensic scenario has been widely explored, mainly in the context of the analysis of illicit drugs. In this regard, voltammetric measurements are particularly sensitive and specific. Psychedelic LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) appears in seized blotters, and its apprehension is constant on a global scale. In this study, we have developed a simple, fast, and sensitive voltammetric method to quantify LSD by using a glassy carbon electrode. The use of an aqueous solution of KClO4 as supporting electrolyte has allowed us to design a less polluting methodology. Concerning the developed method, the anodic peak observed at 0.88 V vs. Ag/AgCl is proportional to the concentration of LSD. The limits of detection and quantification of the method are 0.987 and 3.29 µmol L -1 , respectively, which enables detection of LSD at a concentration level of µg per mL of the extraction solution. The same method can also be employed to detect 25H-NBOMe, a compound belonging to the class of NBOMes, which exert practically the same psychoactive effect as LSD.
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