Separating chiral isomers of amphetamine and methamphetamine using chemical derivatization and differential mobility spectrometry

Abstract: The separation and analysis of chiral compounds, especially enantiomers, presents a great challenge to modern analytical chemistry, particularly to mass spectrometry (MS). As a result, integrated orthogonal separations, such as chiral liquid chromatography (chiral LC), gas chromatography (GC), or capillary electrophoresis (CE), are often employed to separate enantiomers prior to MS analysis. Here, we combine chemical derivatization with differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) and MS to separate and quantitate the transformed enantiomeric pairs R‐ and S‐amphetamine, as well as R‐ and S‐methamphetamine. We also demonstrate separation of these drugs by using reverse‐phase LC. However, while the LC method requires ∼5 min to provide separation, we have developed a flow‐injection analysis (FIA) method using DMS as the exclusive mode of separation (FIA‐DMS), requiring only ∼1.5 min with equivalent quantitative metrics (1‐1000 ng/mL range) to the LC method. The DMS‐based separation of each diastereomeric pair is driven by differences in binding energies between the analyte ions and the chemical modifier molecules (acetonitrile) added to the DMS environment.

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Separating chiral isomers of amphetamine and methamphetamine using chemical derivatization and differential mobility spectrometry ; volume:1 ; number:4 ; year:2020 ; pages:233-244 ; extent:12 ; Analytical science advances ; 1, Heft 4 (2020), 233-244 (gesamt 12)

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Campbell, J. Larry ; Kafle, Amol ; Bowman, Zack ; Blanc, J. C. Yves Le ; Liu, Chang ; Hopkins, W. Scott

Further information

• DOI: 10.1002/ansa.202000066
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2022062408274847095513
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 15.08.2025, 7:29 AM CEST