Investigation of Ionic Liquid Phases for Chromatographic Separation of Fentanyl Analogues

• NCJ Number: 306257
• Author(s): Katherine R. Smart
• Date Published: December 2022
• Grant Number(s): 2019-R2-CX-0043
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation

Annotation

This dissertation discusses the author’s investigation into alternative stationary phases and development of special gas-liquid chromatographic based methods for isomeric fentanyl analogues

Abstract

The author of this dissertation seeks to address the lack of research into fentanyl isomeric analogues, and to advance current capabilities in the detection of fentanyl compounds by developing methods to use in forensic labs using already available equipment. The author therefore reports on his investigation into alternative stationary phases and development of special gas-liquid chromatographic (GLC) based methods for isomeric fentanyl analogues. The author reports on several studies to investigate the use of ionic liquid chromatographic phases for analyzing fentanyl analogues: the first investigated the thermal stability of ionic liquids to identify those suitable to withstand high oven temperatures needed to elute fentanyl analogues in gas chromatography; the second study, on fentanyl analogues, used an ionic liquid stationary phase along with commonly used stationary phases for comparison purposes; and the third study developed quantitative structure property relationship equations to predict the retention of time of fentanyl analogues on two of the gas chromatographic stationary phases used in the second study.