Spectral Trends in GC-EI-MS Data Obtained from the SWGDRUG Mass Spectral Library and Literature: A Resource for the Identification of Unknown Compounds

Overview

Journal Forensic Chem

Specialty Chemistry

Date 2022 Dec 29

PMID 36578315

Authors

William Feeney

Arun S Moorthy

Edward Sisco

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Rapid identification of new or emerging psychoactive substances remains a critical challenge in forensic drug chemistry laboratories. Current analytical protocols are well-designed for confirmation of known substances yet struggle when new compounds are encountered. Many laboratories initially attempt to classify new compounds using gas chromatography-electron ionization-mass spectrometry (GC-EI-MS). Though there is a large body of research focused on the analysis of illicit substances with GC-EI-MS, there is little high-level discussion of mass spectral trends for different classes of drugs. This manuscript compiles literature information and performs simple exploratory analyses on evaluated GC-EI-MS data to investigate mass spectral trends for illicit substance classes. Additionally, this work offers other important aspects: brief discussions of how each class of drugs is used; illustrations of EI mass spectra with proposed structures of commonly observed ions; and summaries of mass spectral trends that can help an analyst classify new illicit compounds.

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