Comparison of the characteristic mass fragmentations of phenethylamines and tryptamines by electron ionization gas chromatography mass spectrometry, electrospray and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry

Characteristic mass fragmentation of 20 phenethylamine/tryptamine standards were investigated and compared by means of matrix assisted laser desorption/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI/TOFM), gas chromatography-electron ionization-mass spectrometry (GC-EI/MS) and liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization/mass spectrometry (LC-ESI/MS) methods. As a result, three characteristic peaks ([M]⁺ and fragments from the Cβ-Cα bond breakage) were found to be unique and contained information useful in identifying 2C series compounds based on the GC-EI/MS method. We found that the protonated molecular ion ([M+H]⁺) and two types of fragments produced from the α-cleavage and β-cleavage processes were useful mass spectral information in the rapid screening and confirmation of phenethylamine and tryptamine derivatives when ESI/MS and MALDI/TOFMS methods were applied. This assay was successfully used to determine samples that contain illicit drugs.