Abstract
Illicit drugs use and abuse remains an increasing challenge for worldwide authorities and, therefore, it is important to have accurate methods to detect them in seized samples, biological fluids and wastewaters. They are recently classified as the latest group of emerging pollutants as their consumption increased tremendously in recent years. Nanomaterials have gained much attention over the last decade in the development of sensors for a myriad of applications. The applicability of these nanomaterials, functionalized or not, significantly increases and it is therefore highly suitable for use in the detection of illicit drugs. We have assessed the suitability of various nanoplatforms, such as graphene (GPH), multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) for the electrochemical detection of illicit drugs. GPH and MWCNTs were chosen as the most suitable platforms and cocaine, 3,4-methylendioxymethamfetamine (MDMA), 3-methylmethcathinone (MMC) and α-pyrrolidinovalerophenone (PVP) were tested. Due to the hydrophobicity of the nanomaterials-based platforms which led to low signals, two strategies were followed namely, pretreatment of the electrodes in sulfuric acid by cyclic voltammetry and addition of Tween 20 to the detection buffer. Both strategies led to an increase in the oxidation signal of illicit drugs. Binary mixtures of illicit drugs with common adulterants found in street samples were also investigated. The proposed strategies allowed the sensitive detection of illicit drugs in the presence of most adulterants. The suitability of the proposed sensors for the detection of illicit drugs in spiked wastewaters was finally assessed.
Highlights
In the last years, illicit drug consumption has increased tremendously and it seriously affects the public health worldwide (United Nations Publications, 2020)
Since there were several studies conducted for the electrochemical detection of cocaine samples adulterated with levamisole (Florea et al, 2018a; De Jong et al, 2018), our study focused on some of the other common cutting agents encountered in drug samples, namely caffeine, acetaminophen, lactose and benzocaine
This extensive study determined the optimized platforms and experimental conditions to assess some molecules of illicit drugs, namely cocaine, MDMA, MMC and PVP, alone and in the presence of commonly adulterants found in real samples
Summary
Illicit drug consumption has increased tremendously and it seriously affects the public health worldwide (United Nations Publications, 2020). This fact is linked to the European drug market which continues to evolve and to produce new psychoactive substances that are very difficult to detect by the authorities. Recent changes in the drug market are associated with technology development and globalization These changes include innovation in drug production, new trafficking methods, and the growth of online markets (EMCDDA, 2020). The abuse of these substances has severe consequences for our society, increased health costs, economic impact, increasing criminality, and environment pollution (Florea et al, 2018b).
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