Fast Screening of Fentanyl Illicit Drug By the Electrochemical Enhancement of Raman Intensity

Abstract

Fentanyl is a potent opioid drug used as an analgesic and anesthetic because it is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin as an analgesic. However, the overdose of fentanyl requires small dose and can cause stupor, changes in pupil size, clammy skin, cyanosis, coma, and respiratory failure leading to death. During the last years the illicit fentanyl and its analogues have been responsible for most drug overdose deaths in different countries and for that reason, the development of identification and detection methods is mandatory.Spectroelectrochemical methods are currently proposed for the screening of this drug [1]. For instance, the combination of electrochemistry (EC) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has received growing attention due to the enhancement of Raman intensity associated with EC-SERS effect. However, the generation of reproducible SERS substrates is a traditional limitation of this effect. In that way, activation of metallic screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) by electrochemical routes allows to obtain reproducible nanostructures with excellent SERS properties [2], opening new gates for analytical applications.In this work, the development of a fentanyl detection method based on EC-SERS effect is achieved. Spectroelectrochemical screening of this drug with metallic SPEs consists of two consecutive steps performed in a single experiment: (1) electrochemical generation of metallic NPs with SERS effect and (2) Raman detection of fentanyl present in solution.Metallic SPEs provide interesting results being not only useful in the characterization of fentanyl, but also for analytical purposes. The proposed EC-SERS method with gold SPEs allows the detection of 0.33 ug/ml fentanyl and offers a rapid, efficient, and accurate approach for the detection of this drug.