Collection and detection of airborne etomidate and fentanyl
Objective To explore and establish preliminary methods for sampling,pretreatment,and detection of airborne etomidate and fentanyl.By finding and selecting source-marking molecules of illicit drugs,preliminarily elucidated the source characteristics of airborne etomidate and fentanyl.Methods Etomidate and fentanyl-containing flue gas have been produced via simulated smoking,while the flue gas has been collected through bubbling absorption or filter membrane;The collected PM have been extracted by ethanol for gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GC-MS)analysis of etomidate,fentanyl and marking molecules(nicotine).Additionally,ultra-high performance liquid chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry(UPLC-MS/MS)have been implemented to quantify concentration of etomidate and fentanyl in PM extraction solution for estimating content of airborne PM-containing etomidate and fentanyl.Results The estimated content of indoor PM-containing etomidate generated from smoking is 750.70 ng/m3,and the estimated content of indoor PM-containing fentanyl is 399.07 ng/m3.Conclusion Under the experimental conditions,the sampling efficiency of PM filtration is higher than that of flue-gas blubbing absorption.Nicotine can serve as a marker for the smoking or thermal-inhaling sources of PM-containing etomidate and fentanyl.The present research provides a new practical case for analyzing the source characteristics of airborne PM-containing illicit drugs.