Detection of fentanyl in binary mixtures with cocaine by use of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Abstract

The ongoing epidemic pertaining to overdose deaths has been attributed to the synthetic opioid fentanyl due to its use as an adulterant in other, less potent drugs of abuse. Detection of low quantities of fentanyl would, therefore, be extremely useful in a forensic science laboratory. While Raman spectroscopy is particularly effective at distinguishing between classes of drugs, weak signatures can prove difficult when dealing with microscopic samples. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy provides the enhancement necessary to make Raman a viable approach for the detection of small amounts of fentanyl. This work explores the use of a paper-based substrate loaded with silver nanoparticles for the recovery of small quantities of fentanyl in cocaine, where it was identified at a lower limit of 500?ng (～65?ppm) in mixtures. Linear relationships were investigated between intensity and concentration for diagnostic peaks associated with fentanyl and cocaine, which in turn sheds light on the attenuation of the enhancement intensity as a result of competitive binding to silver nanoparticles. This work demonstrates a potentially simple and qualitative pathway for the forensic analysis of fentanyl as an adulterant in cocaine.     

Intersections of finitely generated clones

We answer negatively the following question asked by Stanley Burris: Is the intersection of two finitely generated clones always finitely generated?     

Comparison of ion chromatography and capillary electrophoresis for the determination of inorganic ions

The techniques of ion chromatography and capillary electrophoresis are compared as analytical methods for the determination of inorganic anions and cations. Comparison is made in the areas of stage of development, separation efficiency, separation selectivity, analytical performance parameters, method development procedures, applications, strenghts and weaknesses, and future directions. It is shown that the two techniques are complementary rather than competitive, especially with regard to their separation selectivities and the type of applications to which they are most suited.     

Monotone trajectories of differential inclusions and functional differential inclusions with memory

The paper gives a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of monotone trajectories to differential inclusionsdx/dt ∈S[x(t)] defined on a locally compact subsetX ofR ^p, the monotonicity being related to a given preorder onX. This result is then extended to functional differential inclusions with memory which are the multivalued case to retarded functional differential equations. We give a similar necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of trajectories which reach a given closed set at timet=0 and stay in it with the monotonicity property fort≧0.     

Upper bounds for the forwarding indices of communication networks

The decision version of the forwarding index problem is, given a connected graph G and an integer ξ, to find a way of connecting each ordered pair of vertices by a path so that every vertex is an internal point of at most such paths. The optimization version of the problem is to find the smallest ξ for which a routing of this kind exists. Such a problem arises in the design of communication networks and distributed architectures. A model of parallel computation is represented by a network of processors, or machines processing and forwarding (synchronous) messages to each other, subject to physical constraints bearing on either the number of messages that can be processed by a single machine or the number of messages that can be sent through a connection. It was in this context that the problem was first introduced by Chung et al. (IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 33 (1987) 224). The aim of this paper is to establish upper bounds for the optimal ξ as a function of the connectivity of the graph.     

The effect of HNO(3), HCl and HBr on the fluorescence of the aluminium complex of 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol and an improved fluorometric procedure for determination of aluminium

The fluorescence of the aluminium complex of 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol (PAN) is both stabilized and enhanced by 10(-3)M HNO(3) . HCl or HBr. Other acids tested have no effect. An improved flourometric procedure with a detection limit of 0.001 ppm, increased precision and reduced interferences over the existing Al-PAN method is described. It is satisfactory for the determination of aluminium in bronze when an ion-exchange separation is used, but is not suitable for the determination of aluminium in plants. The acidified Al-PAN is unsuitable for the determination of nickel(II) and fluoride by fluorescence quenching.     

Isovector coupling channel and central properties of the charge density distribution in heavy spherical nuclei

The influence of the isovector coupling channel on the central depression parameter and the central value of the charge density distribution in heavy spherical nuclei was studied. The isovector coupling channel leads to about 50% increase of the central depression parameter, and weakens the dependency of both central depression parameter and central density on the asymmetry, impressively contributing to the semibubble form of the charge density distribution in heavy nuclei, and increasing the probability of larger nuclei with higher proton numbers and higher neutron-to-proton ratios stable.