| AVS 65th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Applied Surface Science Division | Thursday Sessions |
| Session AS+SE-ThM |
| Session: | Applied Surface Analysis of Novel, Complex or Challenging Materials |
| Presenter: | Greg Gillen, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) |
| Authors: | G.J. Gillen, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) S. Muramoto, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) J. Verkouteren, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) E. Sisco, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The misuse and addiction to opioids including heroin and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and its various analogs has become a national crisis. Drug overdoses have become the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50 with 64,000 overdose related deaths in 2016. The extreme potency of fentanyl and its analogs (100-10,000 times more potent than morphine) may result in even very small doses causing life threatening overdoses. The potency is also a safety concern due to the potential for accidental exposure of law enforcement, first responders, forensic lab personnel and health care providers. To address this concern, several trace chemical analysis techniques are being evaluated as presumptive methods for identification of a suspected opioid while minimizing exposure to end users (1). In addition, since the bulk of illicitly manufactured fentanyl enters the US via overseas mail, there is interest in application of the same chemical screening techniques for detection of fentanyl residues on packages to support interdiction. To facilitate the continued development, evaluation and optimization of the aforementioned screening tools, TOF-SIMS imaging and mass spectral analysis is being used to characterize the particle size and chemical composition of fentanyl and related compounds produced by solution casting of pure materials onto metal substrates or as particles collected on conductive adhesive tapes after sampling the outsides of packages containing suspected opioids. TOF-SIMS was able to image and provide unique mass spectral signatures from individual particles of heroin, fentanyl and several analogs. In order to increase the sensitivity of TOF-SIMS for particle identification, we have evaluated the use of acidic polymer substrates (Nafion) as proton donating particle collection substrates. Preliminary results suggest orders of magnitude improvements in protonated secondary ion signals for fentanyl. Finally, the screening technologies being developed were not designed with consideration of the significant toxicity of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs in the form of respirable aerosols. In a typical screening analysis, thermal desorption from a collection swipe can lead to the formation of aerosols in micrometer size range posing a possible risk of toxic exposure to the analyst. TOF-SIMS was also used to characterize the size distribution of thermally desorbed aerosols emitted by these techniques.
(1). Edward Sisco, Jennifer Verkouteren, Jessica Staymates and Jeffrey Lawrence, Forensic Chemistry, (4), 108-115 (2017).