High-throughput screening of 311 new psychoactive substances and metabolites in wastewater by direct injection UPLC-MS/MS.
Journal of chromatography. B, Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences August 1, 2025 Yue Xiao, Shuai Yuan, Ruxin Luo et al. 3 citations
A high-throughput screening method using direct injection was developed to detect 311 new psychoactive substances (NPS) and their metabolites in wastewater, covering synthetic cannabinoids, cathinones, phenylethylamines, tryptamines, phencyclidines, benzodiazepines, fentanyls, and piperazines. The method runs in 16 minutes, with 95.8% of targets having a limit of detection at or below 10 ng/L and recoveries between 71.01% and 119.88%. Applied to 976 real samples from a Chinese city, it identified 32 substances, with ketamine detected most frequently. This approach offers a simple analytical tool for wastewater monitoring to support early warning and assessment of drug trends.