Identification of five pyrrolidinyl substituted cathinones and the collision-induced dissociation of electrospray-generated pyrrolidinyl substituted cathinones

This article reports on the analytical properties of five pyrrolidinyl substituted cathinones: alpha-pyrrolidinononaphenone (alpha-PNP, 1), 4-chloro-alpha-pyrrolidinopropiophenone (4-Cl-alpha-PPP, 2), 4-chloro-alpha-pyrrolidinovalerophenone (4-Cl-alpha-PVP, 3), 5-dihydrobenzofuranpyrovalerone (5-DBFPV, 4), and 2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)-1-(5,6,7,8-tetrahydronaphthalen-2-yl)hexan-1-one (beta-THNPH, 5). These identifications were based on liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). To our knowledge, no analytical data about alpha-PNP, 4-Cl-alpha-PPP, 4-Cl-alpha-PVP, and beta-THNPH have appeared until now, making this the first report on these compounds. Moreover, in order to study the collision-induced dissociation (CID) characteristic fragmentation routes of pyrrolidinyl substituted cathinones, a total number of 13 pyrrolidinyl substituted cathinones were selected and discussed. The major fragmentation pathways under CID mode are produced, leading to the formation of characteristic ions. Product ions of [M-C4H9N](+) and CnH2nN+ indicate the presence of pyrrolidinyl substitution. Characteristic fragments are also produced via the cleavages of the CH-N(CH2)(4) bond and the CO-CHN bond. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.