Page 2 - CBRNe December 2017 vPress Synthetic Opiods

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Table 1. Comparison of commercially available products for trace detection of synthetic opioids.

processing, speed of instrument set-up, 510 which uses a strong electron 600 and the Bruker RoadRunner do not
ability to resolve mixtures, on-board ionisation technique, followed by use radioactive ion sources, therefore
libraries and cost. For the trace quadrupole detection and library they do not require periodic testing for
detection technologies, most matching is an example of a GC-MS. It radioactivity and do not have the
commercial products measure in the does not allow for identification of the logistics burden associated with many
mid-nanograms range which is well molecular ion of a species, but it will older IMS models.
below the toxicity threshold for an provide for consistent library matching Another consideration which is
analgesic effect. and can use widely available electron more applicable to trace detectors is the
Each of the products listed have ionisation libraries, such as that time required for the system to turn on
different capabilities which make them developed by NIST, thereby greatly and be ready for operations. Of the
of high interest to the operational increasing its operational utility. The instruments studied, the MX908 takes
community. The MX908, a high- Inficon Hapsite GC-MS system follows approximately one minute, the
pressure approach to mass the same concepts as the FLIR Griffin Guardion takes five minutes, the
spectrometry, released a software 510. Smiths Guardion is another GC- IONSCAN 600 takes up to 10 minutes,
update in December 2017. This MS system, but it uses an ion trap the Griffin 510 takes 15 minutes, and
incorporates the new drug hunter mode detector. This system is widely deployed the RoadRunner takes up to 30 minutes.
allowing the operator to uniquely in the defence community.
identify synthetic opioids in mixtures The Smiths IONSCAN 600 is an IMS Choosing a bulk detector for field
down to 1% of total product while also system that is widely used in aviation operations
providing unique identification of the security around the world. Bruker’s The technologies that are suitable for
analogues. It is the only system that handheld RoadRunner is likely the the bulk detection of synthetic opioids
identifies the molecular ions of the newest IMS on the market. Recent (greater than a microgram) include
synthetic opioids and can differentiate additions of synthetic opioids to the Raman spectroscopy, infrared
between materials with the same libraries have greatly increased their spectroscopy, and colorimetric
molecular weight. It incorporates a utility for border security applications. chemistries. For bulk detection, the
platform-specific library as a result of As the IMS systems add more synthetic commercial products are measuring in
this unique high pressure MS approach. opioids to their libraries, they will the microgram range which is well
The other MS approaches continue to see more operational utility below the lethal dose.
incorporate gas chromatography (GC) in the narcotics detection trade space. Raman spectroscopy instruments
where chemical separation is utilised Unlike many commercial IMS can further be divided into spatially
with an MS detector. The FLIR Griffin instruments, both the Smiths IONSCAN offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) and

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