The Analysis of 2,5-Dimethoxy-N-(N-methoxybenzyl) phenethylamine (NBOMe) Isomers Using Traditional and Fast Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
January 1, 2017 J. Tyler Davidson
Six isomers of NBOMe designer drugs can be reliably differentiated by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry using retention indices, which showed large inter-isomer differences. A fast GC-MS method was twice as rapid as traditional methods with no significant loss in resolution, and provided retention time precision of 0.03% relative standard deviation, compared to 0.10% and 1.26% for traditional instruments. These precisions suggest that the commonly used retention time match window of ±2% RSD may be too lenient. Canonical discriminant analysis classified 99.9% of higher-concentration samples and 99.5% of all samples correctly.