Methamphetamine has a high potential for abuse and is among the top list in illicit drug cases in the United States. In this work we investigated the responses of methamphetamine to the UV irradiations by the UV-Vis absorption spectrometry and the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS). We observed that methamphetamine caused the decrease then increase of an absorption peak at 960 nm in aqueous solutions upon UV treatment for 50 min. Two new GC components at the retention time of 1.9 min and 22.2 min were observed after exposure to UV light for 90 min. In addition, the substantial changes involving the appearance and disappearance of multiple GC components in the range of 3-11 min were found and may serve as the �UV-induced GCMS fingerprint of methamphetamine.� The experimental results may provide insightful information and new strategy for tracing the origin of manufacture and pathway of distribution of methamphetamine.

UV light induced structural changes of methamphetamine by spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

245th National Meeting (2013)

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