Electrochemical detection of MDMA and 2C-B in ecstasy tablets using a selectivity enhancement strategy by in-situ derivatization

Forensic drug laboratories are confronted with increasing amounts of drugs and a demand for faster results that directly available on-site. In addition, the market is getting more complex hundreds new psychoactive substances (NPS) entering in recent years. Rapid on-scene presumptive testing therefore faces shift from manual colorimetric tests towards approaches can detect wider range components process automatically. Electrochemical detection offers these desired characteristics, making it suitable candidate on-site detection. this study, two-step electrochemical sensor introduced MDMA 2C-B. Firstly, direct analysis was performed to MDMA. Validation experiments on over 70 revealed 2C-B only frequently encountered gave false positive result first analysis. A second step using in-situ derivatization subsequently introduced. To end, formaldehyde used N-methylation thereby enhancing its profile. The enriched fingerprint allowed clear differentiation between applicability approach demonstrated 71 ecstasy tablets seized by Amsterdam Police. MDMA/2C-B correctly identified all 39 MDMA-containing 10 out 11 containing Most notably, correct were also obtained dark colored which both spectroscopic failed due obscured signals.