A simple electrochemical approach for the rapid determination of cannabinoid designer drug ADB-BUTINACA

Abstract

This work reports, for the first time, a simple, rapid and sensitive square-wave voltammetric method for the determination of ADB-BUTINACA, which is currently one the most prevalent synthetic cannabinoids on the drug market in the European Union. The method is based on the direct electrochemical oxidation of ADB-BUTINACA at a modification-free boron-doped diamond electrode in aqueous electrolyte solution. Studies indicated that the oxidation of ADB-BUTINACA is pH-independent, irreversible and controlled by diffusion. The best SWV response for ADB-BUTINACA was obtained in 0.1 mol dm⁻³ KNO₃ buffered to pH 3, at a frequency of 100 Hz, a step potential of 2 mV and an amplitude of 50 mV. Under these conditions, the linear response for ADB-BUTINACA was obtained in the concentration range of 1.1–104 μmol dm⁻³, and calculated LOD and LOQ were 0.83 and 2.50 μmol dm⁻³, respectively. The peak current based intra- and inter-day precision values were 2.9 and 4.8 %, respectively. The spike-recovery results in e-liquid samples ranged between 92 and 104 %, confirming the applicability and good performance of the proposed method.