Enantiomeric separation of 13 new amphetamine-like designer drugs by capillary electrophoresis, using modified-B-cyclodextrins.

ABSTRACT

An easy-to-prepare chiral CE method for the enantiomeric separation of 13 new amphetamine-like designer drugs, using CDs as chiral selectors, was developed. Sulfated-ß-CD was found to be the best chiral selector among the three used (sulfated-ß-CD, caroboxymethyl-ß-CD, dimethyl-ß-CD). The separation of the analytes was achieved in a fused-silica gel capillary at 20 °C using an applied voltage of +25 kV. The optimized background electrolyte consisted of 63.5 mM H3 PO4 and 46.9 mM NaOH in water. Several electrophoretic parameters such as CD type, CD concentration (1 - 40 mg/mL), buffer pH (2.6, 3.6, 5.0, 6.0), length of the capillary (70 - 40 cm total length), amount of the organic solvent (methanol and acetonitrile) were investigated and optimized.