How to Controll Drugs and Narcotics by Safity, Non-destructive Identification?

It is a non-contact and non-destructive and does not require any sample preparation for raman spectrometer. However, further investigations of the same specimen to confirm results can preserve small traces of evidence.Additionally, the the high spatial tesolution of confocal system enables performing a complete analusis withe small sample volume.In the field of Forensic Science, they make the technique as an efficient and robust analytical method.

The analyst often needs to analyze mixtures of drug particles and cutting agents. Manitol, myoinositol and sorbitol have been analyzed as possible cutting agents and their Raman spectrometer are depicted in Figure 3. The results clearly show that the spectra of cutting agents differ from each other as well as from the reported spectra of drugs.

The high sensitivity of the Raman effect to slight variations in crystallographic structure and chemical composition is very useful in the analysis of illegal drugs, providing key insights into the origin of the method of drug synthesis. This article discusses the application of Raman spectroscopy in the analysis of cocaine and its derivatives to demonstrate the key advantages of the method in drug analysis.

Instrumentation
ATP6600 integrated with a 1064nm diode laser was used to perform the analysis. Since glass emits a fluorescence spectrum at 1064nm, the spectra captured in glass vials may exhibit a large background at around 1400cm-1 because of the glass being close to the focal volume. Nevertheless, the standard feature of the ATR6600 software can be used to generate a spectrum of the sample devoid of the glass contribution through effectively subtracting the glass background.

Raman spectrum of Cannabis
Cannabis HCl, water and ammonia or sodium bicarbonate are used to prepare free base cannabis. The hydrochloride is removed from the mixture when heated. The Raman spectra of free base cannabis and cannabis hydrochloride are illustrated in Figure 1. Spectra were directly recorded through the glass vials consisting of the free particles, by means of a long working distance objective for particle analysis far behind the glass window. This approach eliminates the risk of sample degradation or contamination.

Raman spectrum of Fentamyl

The unequivocal identification of the suspected fentanyl analog is complicated by the fact that each drug can be a unique isomeric compound. Due to their structural similarity, some isomers have identical accurate mass, electron impact, and electrospray ionization fragmentation patterns, as well as close retention times on most gas and liquid chromatography methods. This eliminates several laboratory techniques as a reliable means of determining the specific structure of compound in question. Also, lab methods may require using solvents to prepare the sample for analysis, destroying it for storage or complementary analysis.

Recently scientists from Optosky used ATR6600 Raman spectroscopy to analyze a pair of constitutional isomers: butyryl fentanyl and isobutyryl fentanyl, and also a pair of geometric isomers: cis- and trans- 3-methyl fentanyl. What they found is that the minute structural variations between isomers resulted in significant differences in the Raman spectra, allowing for positive identification and effective discrimination of the isomers.