ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Published Online: 1 January 1982
Page Count: 10

Approaches to Drug Sample Differentiation. III: A Comparative Study of the Use of Chiral and Achiral Capillary Column Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry for the Determination of Methamphetamine Enantiomers and Possible Impurities
Liu, JH
Assistant professor, graduate student, graduate student, and graduate student, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, IL.

Tsay, JT
Assistant professor, graduate student, graduate student, and graduate student, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, IL.

Fitzgerald, MP
Assistant professor, graduate student, graduate student, and graduate student, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, IL.

Kim, S
Senior mass spectrometrist, Central Regional Laboratory, Environmental Protection Agency, IL.

Ku, WW
Assistant professor, graduate student, graduate student, and graduate student, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, IL.

(Received 16 May 1981; accepted 16 July 1981)

Abstract

A gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) system equipped with a chiral and an achiral capillary column is used to analyze control methamphetamine, an illicit methamphetamine preparation (“White Cross”), and a simulated illicit methamphetamine synthesis product. Samples are derivatized with N-trifluoroacetyl-l-prolyl chloride (I-TPC) before the GC/MS analysis. The results obtained lead to the conclusion that the resolution on an achiral column is adequate for the determination of methamphetamine enantiomers and impurities, providing the enantiomeric impurity of the l-TPC is known. Four new possible by-products of methamphetamine preparations were identified in the simulated illicit methamphetamine synthesis product.

Keywords:
toxicology, drug identification, chemical analysis, enantiomer, chiral stationary phase, capillary column, amphetamine, methamphetamine, N-trifluoracetyl-l-prolyl chloride, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

Paper ID: JFS11449J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS11449J
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