@article{ref1,
title="Rapid drop-volume electrochemical detection of the "date rape" drug flunitrazepam in spirits using a screen-printed sensor in a dry-reagent format",
journal="Sensors (Basel)",
year="2020",
author="Papadopoulos, Frixos and Diamanteas, Konstantinos and Economou, Anastasios and Kokkinos, Christos",
volume="20",
number="18",
pages="e5192-e5192",
abstract="Flunitrazepam is an extremely potent benzodiazepine sedative which is associated with &quot;drug-facilitated sexual assault&quot; when administered within an alcoholic drink. This work describes a simple electrochemical method for on-site rapid detection of flunitrazepam in untreated spirits (whiskey, vodka and gin) using a single-use screen-printed sensor (featuring graphite working and auxiliary electrodes and an Ag/AgCl reference electrode) in a dry reagent format. Analysis was performed by placing a drop of sample on the sensor, which was previously coated with dry KCl, and recording selected reduction/oxidation peaks of the target compound in a cyclic voltammetry scan. The limit of quantification of flunitrazepam was at the sub-mg L-1 range. The between-sensor % relative standard deviation of the analytically useful reduction peak in a solution containing 11.4 mg L-1 flunitrazepam was 9.8% (n = 5). Quantification was performed using calibration curves constructed from pooled samples spiked with flunitrazepam with relative errors <15%. The main advantages of the methodology are that it involves no sample pretreatment (such as deoxygenation, extraction or reagent(s) addition) and requires only drop-sized volumes of the sample, thus facilitating rapid on-site screening using portable equipment.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1424-8220",
doi="10.3390/s20185192",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s20185192"
}