Development and Evaluation of a Synthetic Opioid Targeted Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) Method

A method for the targeted confirmation of synthetic opioids and related compounds observed in forensic seized drug analysis was developed and evaluated. Investigated settings included column type, flow rate, temperature program, inlet temperature, source temperature, and tune type. It was evaluated against a suite of 222 synthetic opioids and related compounds, and successfully differentiated all but four compound pairs based on retention time or mass spectra. Compared to a general confirmatory method, the targeted method was up to 25 times more sensitive and provided at least a two-fold increase in retention time differences. Analysis of case extracts successfully demonstrated utility of the method and showed no instance of carryover, although the high polarity column required wider retention time windows than other columns.