Rapid On-Site Detection of Various Amphetamine-Type Drugs in Human Urine and Hair by Portable Pulsed Direct Current Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry

Abstract Herein, a new method for the simultaneous rapid on-site detection of various amphetamine (AM)-type drugs in human urine and hair samples is proposed using portable pulsed direct current electrospray ionization mass spectrometer. Traditional chromatographic separation and complex pretreatment processes are omitted in the entire analysis, which reduces the amount of time required. Additionally, only about 3 µL of a sample was dipped by a disposable probe and ionized by special ionization methods, and the overall analysis time by mass spectrometry was only a few seconds. The detection limits of five AMs in the urine sample and four AMs in the hair sample are in accordance with the international authoritative standards. Furthermore, the method also exhibits satisfactory accuracy (between 95.1–104.7%), linearity ( R 2 = 0.999) and precision (RSD within 10%) in their respective linear ranges. Therefore, the method can be used for the on-site rapid detection of trace AMs in biological samples.