Electrochemical behavior of cocaine cutting agents at the polarized liquid-liquid interface

In this work, we have used cyclic voltammetry to investigate the interfacial behavior of cocaine cut-ting agents at the electrified liquid-liquid interface formed between a solution of the water and 1,2-dichloroethane phases. Among 27 chemical species used to adulterate cocaine street samples, only 8 were detectable in the available potential window. These include procaine, lidocaine, levamisole, hydroxyzine, caffeine, phenylethylamine, diltiazem, and diphenhydramine. From the calibration curves obtained us-ing voltammetric data, we have extracted the electroanalytical parameters such as detection sensitivities, limits of detection, and limits of quantifications. Also, for each electrochemically active drug, we have cal-culated diffusion coefficients and plotted the ion partition and concentration fraction diagrams. All this information is discussed in a view of the cocaine sensors development focused on its detection from demanding matrix defined by the street samples composition. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )

Automated summary

The study utilized cyclic voltammetry to investigate the behavior of cocaine cutting agents at the electrified liquid-liquid interface, identifying detectable chemicals and extracting electroanalytical parameters and diffusion coefficients to aid in the development of cocaine sensors for detecting the drug in complex street samples.