Engineering molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for the selective extraction and quantification of the novel psychoactive substance (NPS) methoxphenidine and its regioisomers.

Lowdon, JW, Alkirkit, SMO, Mewis, RE, Fulton, D, Banks, CE, Sutcliffe, OB and Peeters, M (2018) Engineering molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for the selective extraction and quantification of the novel psychoactive substance (NPS) methoxphenidine and its regioisomers. Analyst, 143. pp. 2002-2007. ISSN 0003-2654

Preview

Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Download (318kB) | Preview

Abstract

In this communication, we present the first developed Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) for the specific detection of a New Psychoactive Substance (NPS); namely, methoxphenidine (MXP) and its regioisomers. Selectivity of the MIP towards MXP is studied by analysing mixtures and an acquired street sample with High Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to UV detection. The study demonstrates that the engineered polymers selectively extract MXP from heterogeneous samples, which makes for a very powerful diagnostic tool that can detect traces of MXP in complicated NPS samples.