Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, practicing personal hygiene such as frequent hand sanitising becomes a norm. The making of effective hand sanitiser products should follow the recommended formulations,...
A portable electrochemical
device for xylazine detection is presented
for the first time. An electrochemical paper-based analytical device
(ePAD) was integrated with a smartphone. The fabrication of the ePAD
involved wax printing, low-tack transfer tape, and cutting and screen-printing
techniques. Graphene ink was coated on the substrate and modified
with nanocoral-like polyaniline, providing an electron transfer medium
with a larger effective surface area that promoted charge transfer.
The conductive ink on the ePAD presented a thickness of 25.0 ±
0.9 μm for an effective surface area of 0.374 cm
2
. This sensor was then tested directly on xylazine using differential
pulse voltammetry. Two linear responses were obtained: from 0.2 to
5 μg mL
–1
and from 5 to 100 μg mL
–1
. The detection limit was 0.06 μg mL
–1
. Reproducibility was tested on 10 preparations. The relative standard
deviation was less than 5%. The applicability of the sensor was evaluated
with beverage samples spiked with trace xylazine. Recoveries ranged
from 84 ± 4 to 105 ± 2%. The developed sensor demonstrated
excellent accuracy in the detection of trace xylazine. It would be
possible to develop the portable system to detect various illicit
drugs to aid forensic investigations.
Presently, investigations of drug‐facilitated crimes (DFCs) rely on the detection of substances extracted from biological samples following intake by the victim. However, such detection requires rapid sampling and analysis prior to metabolism and elimination of the drugs from the body. In cases of suspected DFCs, drug‐spiked beverage samples, whether in liquid, droplet, or even dried form, can be tested for the presence of spike drugs and used as evidence for the occurrence of DFCs. This study aimed to quantitatively determine three sedative‐hypnotics (ketamine, nimetazepam, and xylazine) from drug‐spiked beverages using a vortex‐assisted dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction‐gas chromatography (VADLLME‐GC) approach. In this study, a GC method was first developed and validated, followed by the optimization of the VADLLME protocol, which was then applied to quantify the target substances in simulated forensic case scenarios. The developed GC method was selective, sensitive (limit of detection: 0.08 μg/ml [ketamine]; 0.16 μg/ml [nimetazepam]; 0.08 μg/ml [xylazine]), linear (R2 > 0.99), precise (%RSD <7.2%), and accurate (% recovery: 92.8%–103.5%). Higher recoveries were achieved for the three drugs from beverage samples in liquid form (51%–97%) as compared to droplet (48%–96%) and dried (44%–93%) residues. The recovery was not hindered by very low volumes of spiked beverage and dried residues. In conclusion, the developed VADLLME‐GC method successfully recovered ketamine, nimetazepam, and xylazine from spiked beverages that are likely to be encountered during forensic investigation of DFCs.
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