A green methodology for the determination of cocaine in camouflaged samples

A methodology based on the ultrasound-assisted extraction with ethanol and the dry film attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy (DF-ATR-FTIR) measurement of extracts has been developed for a fast evaluation of non-conventional (exotic) solid-sized cocaine samples. The method provides quantitative results in less than three minutes with a limit of detection in the solid sample of 1.6 mu g g(-1) of cocaine with a variation coefficient lower than 7%. Results found for seized samples of different natures were compared with those obtained by a reference gas chromatography method and the greenness of the whole proposed procedure was evaluated and compared using the analytical ecoscale, green analytical procedure index (GAPI), and analytical greenness metric (AGREE). The green evaluation of the proposed methodology provided green scores by considering different evaluation criteria.

Automated summary

A methodology based on ultrasound-assisted extraction with ethanol and DF-ATR-FTIR measurement was developed for fast evaluation of non-conventional solid-sized cocaine samples. The method provides quantitative results in less than three minutes with a low limit of detection of 1.6 μg/g. The greenness of the proposed procedure was evaluated using analytical ecoscale, GAPI, and AGREE.