Challenges in the identification of new thermolabile psychoactive substances: The 25I-NBOH case.
Forensic science international July 1, 2020 Ana Flávia Belchior de Andrade, Mathieu Elie, Christian Weck et al. 8 citations
The drug 25I-NBOH, a new psychoactive substance (NPS), breaks down in the hot injector of a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS), a common forensic tool, creating misleading byproducts. The main breakdown product is 2C-I, with a smaller amount of an ortho-phenolic benzyl ether (o-PBE) whose exact form depends on the solvent used. Adjusting the injector temperature, split ratio, or flow rate did not prevent this thermal degradation. Thermal analysis showed that 25I-NBOH has a narrow temperature range between melting and decomposing, making it unstable. Derivatization successfully prevented the degradation, allowing accurate GC-MS analysis.