Electrochemical sensing of NBOMes and other new psychoactive substances in blotting paper by square-wave voltammetry on a boron-doped diamond electrode

The electrochemical quantification of new psychoactive substances 2,5-dimethoxy- N -(2-methoxybenzyl)phenethylamines, commonly described as NBOMes and their correlates, 2,5-dimethoxy phenethylamine structures, also known as 2C family compounds, in seized blotting paper is presented using square-wave voltammetry (SWV) on a boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode. Under optimized experimental conditions, linear analytical curves were obtained in the range from 1 to 555 μmol L −1 for three NBOMes and 2C-B with detection limit values between 0.1 and 0.3 μmol L −1 (corresponding to 0.03 and 0.10 μg mL −1 ) and a repeatability of around 1% ( n = 10) for the detection of all analytes. The accuracy of the proposed method was evaluated using seized samples, which were also analyzed by quadrupole time of flight liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (QTOF LC-MS), with perfect agreement, and free from interference of the sample matrix (recovery values between 98 and 110%). The electrochemical quantification of NBOMes and their correlates in seized blotting paper is presented.