Detection of opioid anesthetic compounds via ammonia-doped ion mobility spectrometry

Meperidine, morphine, and sufentanil exhibit a critical duality in contemporary medicine: while serving as essential clinical anesthetics with well-established therapeutic value, they have paradoxically contributed to a severe public health crisis due to their widespread abuse. In response to the pressing demands of contemporary anesthetic regulation and drug control initiatives, this study employs a home-made atmospheric pressure corona discharge ion mobility spectrometer. By introducing an ammonia dopant to suppress the ionization of specific proton-binding sites in morphine, the technical challenge of overlapping mobility peaks between meperidine and morphine is overcome. Experimental results reveal that under optimized drift tube temperature conditions (40-100°C), the drift time of these anesthetics decreases as temperature rises, while the signal intensities of meperidine exhibit a pronounced increasing trend. Through an exploration of signal response characteristics during multi-component simultaneous detection, the competitive ionization mechanisms among the three anesthetics are comprehensively elucidated. This research provides significant value by successfully applying the method of ammonia dopant to additional opioid anesthetic compounds while simultaneously developing and refining the methodological approach.