Development of a reliable and selective voltammetric method for determination of designer drug 1-(3-chlorophenyl)piperazine (mCPP) using boron-doped diamond electrode and exploiting surfactant-mediated measurements

[Display omitted] •A voltammetric method for mCPP determination has been developed for the first time.•The use of surfactant (SDS) proved to be an interesting strategy for obtaining a highly selective voltammetric method.•The proposed method is simple, selective even in the presence of several adulterants, precise and with low-cost. 1-(3-chlorophenyl) piperazine (mCPP) is a drug abuse and its considered as one of the most well-known piperazine derivatives, exhibiting ecstasy-like stimulants and hallucinogenic effects, thereby its determination in drugs seized is of paramount importance. Electroanalysis offers a good alternative for in situ testing on seized samples, but the development of new electroanalytical methods for piperazine derivatives is still incipient. In this work, an electroanalytical method for mCPP detection and quantification using a catodically pre-treated boron-doped diamond electrode (CPT-BDDE) has been reported for the first time. Cyclic voltammograms obtained for mCPP in 0.5 mol L−1 H2SO4 evidenced an electrochemical irreversible behavior with an anodic peak at 1.1 V. Under the optimum condition using differential pulse voltammetry, 0.5 mol L−1 Britton-Robinson buffer and pH 10, the proposed method provided an analytical curve linear over a mCPP concentration range of 3.5–400.0 μmol L−1, with a limit of detection of 1.1 μmol L−1. Adulterants commonly found in seized drugs, including lidocaine (LID), acetominophen (PAR), acetylsalicylic acid (AAS), caffeine (CAF), benzocaine (BEN), procaine (PRO), phenacetine (PHE), cocaine (COC) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) were evaluated as possible interfering compounds. It was observed that anodic peak of mCPP was overlapped only by the presence of BEN and PRO, whose interference was overcome by using 550.0 μmol L−1 SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate). The developed method was applied in synthetic sample and the accuracy was attested by comparison with HPLC-DAD as the reference method.