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Forensic Toxicology
Published in: Forensic Toxicology 2/2018

Open Access 01-07-2018 | Original Article

Differentiation of AB-FUBINACA and its five positional isomers using liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization-linear ion trap mass spectrometry and triple quadrupole mass spectrometry

Authors: Takaya Murakami, Yoshiaki Iwamuro, Reiko Ishimaru, Satoshi Chinaka, Nariaki Takayama, Hiroshi Hasegawa

Published in: Forensic Toxicology | Issue 2/2018

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Abstract

Purpose

Positional isomer differentiation is crucial for forensic analysis. The aim of this study was to differentiate AB-FUBINACA positional isomers using liquid chromatography (LC)–electrospray ionization (ESI)-linear ion trap mass spectrometry (LIT-MS) and LC–ESI-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (QqQ-MS).

Methods

AB-FUBINACA, its two fluorine positional isomers on the phenyl ring, and three methyl positional isomers in the carboxamide side chain were analyzed by LC–ESI-LIT-MS and LC–ESI-QqQ-MS.

Results

Four of the positional isomers, excluding AB-FUBINACA and its 3-fluorobenzyl isomer, were chromatographically separated on an ODS column in isocratic mode. ESI-LIT-MS could discriminate only three isomers, i.e., the 2-fluorobenzyl isomer, the N-(1-amino-2-methyl-1-oxobutan-2-yl) isomer, and the N-(1-amino-1-oxobutan-2-yl)-N-methyl isomer, based on their characteristic product ions observed at the MS3 stage in negative mode. ESI-QqQ-MS differentiated all six isomers in terms of the relative abundances of the product ions that contained the isomeric moieties involved in collision-induced dissociation reactions. The six isomers were more clearly and significantly differentiated upon comparison of the logarithmic values of the product ion abundance ratios as a function of collision energy.

Conclusions

The present LC–MS methodologies were useful for the differentiation of a series of AB-FUBINACA positional isomers.
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Metadata
Title
Differentiation of AB-FUBINACA and its five positional isomers using liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization-linear ion trap mass spectrometry and triple quadrupole mass spectrometry
Authors
Takaya Murakami
Yoshiaki Iwamuro
Reiko Ishimaru
Satoshi Chinaka
Nariaki Takayama
Hiroshi Hasegawa
Publication date
01-07-2018
Publisher
Springer Japan
Published in
Forensic Toxicology / Issue 2/2018
Print ISSN: 1860-8965
Electronic ISSN: 1860-8973
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11419-018-0410-4

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