Abstract
Mercury and arsenic concentrations were determined in ecstasy tablets, which were obtained from different police seizures in Spain, by electrochemical techniques; mercury by differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry with a rotating gold disk electrode, and arsenic by cathodic stripping voltammetry in the differential pulse mode with a hanging mercury drop electrode. The performance of the procedures was compared with cold-vapor atomic absorption spectrometry for mercury, and with electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry for arsenic. The procedures were applied to the determination of both elements in nine ecstasy samples; mercury was the element present in higher concentrations, ranging from 0.05 to 1.23 mg/kg, while the range of arsenic concentrations was 0.04–0.49 mg/kg. The described electrochemical techniques for determination of mercury and arsenic in ecstasy tablets should be useful for impurity profiling in forensic analysis practice, because of their low costs and high sensitivity.
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Fierro, I., Deban, L., Pardo, R. et al. Determination of mercury and arsenic in ecstasy tablets by electrochemical methods. Forensic Toxicol 24, 70–74 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11419-006-0017-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11419-006-0017-z