Potentiometric determination of mephedrone in oral fluids with ion‐selective membranes

Abstract

AbstractThis work presents a potentiometric approach for the detection of two cathinone derivatives, namely mephedrone (4‐MMC) and clephedrone (4‐CMC). Contrary to neutral‐carriers (dibenzo‐18‐crown‐6‐ether and calix[4]arene), cation‐exchanger (tetraphenylborate sodium) as active component of ion‐selective membrane showed near‐Nernstian response (+47 mV/decade from 1.7 ⋅ 10−6 to 5.6 ⋅ 10−4 mol l−1) and selectivity for 4‐MMC in oral fluids (OF). The agreement between the quantitative results obtained with the potentiometric approach and the HPLC/MS‐MS method determination of 4‐MMC in OF shows the potential of the proposed potentiometric approach for forensic analysis.