Date of Award

1-1-2014

Language

English

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

College/School/Department

Department of Chemistry

Content Description

1 online resource (iv, 42 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Jason Shepard

Committee Members

Rabi Musah

Keywords

DART-MS, drugs, GC-MS, Drugs, Drugs of abuse, Fragmentation reactions, Pharmaceutical chemistry, Chemical tests and reagents

Subject Categories

Chemistry

Abstract

Drugs of abuse have been a major problem for law enforcement departments. The structures of the drugs, as well as the ever changing trends in abuse, make it difficult and time consuming to analyze using modern techniques such as GC-MS. DART-MS is a rapid technique that requires no pre-treatment or re-concentration to analyze a sample. Samples of amphetamines, cathinones and cannabinoids were analyzed using DART-MS and GC-MS in order to provide fragment patterns that would make it easier to identify an unknown drug. Using DART-MS, isomers can be differentiated as well as identified rapidly, which is an advantage over GC-MS. Over 70 samples were analyzed and the mass fragment patterns were tabulated with the fragment loss. This led to some consistencies in the fragments between samples, such as a loss of water or an aromatic ring that will be the foundation work in prediction of unknown drugs of abuse.

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