Publication
Title
Polymer platforms for selective detection of cocaine in street samples adulterated with levamisole
Author
Abstract
Accurate drug detection is of utmost importance for fighting against drug abuse. With a high number of cutting agents and adulterants being added to cut or mask drugs in street powders the number of false results is increasing. We demonstrate for the first time the usefulness of employing polymers readily synthesized by electrodeposition to selectively detect cocaine in the presence of the commonly used adulterant levamisole. The polymers were selected by computational modelling to exhibit high binding affinity towards cocaine and deposited directly on the surface of graphene-modified electrodes via electropolymerization. The resulting platforms allowed a distinct electrochemical signal for cocaine, which is otherwise suppressed by levamisole. Square wave voltammetry was used to quantify cocaine alone and in the presence of levamisole. The usefulness of the platforms was demonstrated in the screening of real street samples.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Talanta : the international journal of pure and applied analytical chemistry. - Oxford, 1958, currens
Publication
Oxford : Pergamon , 2018
ISSN
0039-9140 [print]
1873-3573 [online]
DOI
10.1016/J.TALANTA.2018.04.061
Volume/pages
186 (2018) , p. 362-367
ISI
000435048800049
Pubmed ID
29784374
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Novel electrochemical strategies for rapid, on-site multiscreening of illicit drugs (NARCOREADER).
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 22.05.2018
Last edited 09.10.2023
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