Structure Confirmation of Three New Psychoactive Substances and Qualitative Identification of Unknown Substances

To establish the structural confirmation methods of three suspected new psychoactive substances (NPSs), and explore a more general qualitative testing method.

Infrared absorption spectroscopy (IR), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), ¹H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H-NMR), ¹³C-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹³C-NMR), ¹⁹F-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹⁹F-NMR) and other techniques were used to identify the composition and structure of 5 samples containing suspected NPS submitted by public security bureaus.

NPSs were found in the above 5 samples, and 3 were confirmed as NPS included in the newly listed controlled substances on July 1, 2024, namely 2-(methylamino)-2-(2-methylphenyl)cyclohexan-1-one (2-MDCK), 2-(ethylamino)-2-(2-fluorophenyl)cyclohexan-l-one (2-FXE), 1-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl)-2-(dimethylamino)pentan-1-one (dipentylone), respectively. The first two substances were phencyclidine NPS, and the third substance was synthetic cathinone NPS.

This study systematically summarizes the distinguishing features of the infrared absorption spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometry of three NPSs, which can provide a reference for the qualitative identification of unknown substances.