A rapid method for the in-field analysis of amphetamines employing the Agilent Bioanalyzer

Abstract

This paper reports the first analysis of small molecules on the Agilent bio-analyser. The Bioanalyzer is a commercial lab-on-a-chip instrument designed for the analysis of DNA and proteins. We demonstrate that the instrument is suitable for analyses beyond its design specifications. Amphetamine, methamphetamine and pseudoephedrine were separated with a 50 mM borate and 50 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) buffer at pH 9.66. The analytes were derivatised with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) in 3 minutes with a heating block set at 90 °C, reducing the typical time of 12 hours required for amine-labelling. Analytes were detected by LED-induced fluorescence (λ_ex = 525 nm and λ_em = 470 nm). Furthermore, five amphetamine analogues were baseline separated within 1 minute. An average limit of detection of 0.6 μg mL⁻¹ and limit of quantification of 2.2 μg mL⁻¹ were obtained for all analytes. These rapid analyses in conjunction with a fast and reliable derivatisation method with FITC demonstrate its potential use for the in-field analysis of samples of forensic significance.