Advisor(s)

Jason Linville

Committee Member(s)

Elizabeth Gardner
Erin Shonsey

Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

6-16-2026

Degree Name

Master of Science in Forensic Science (MSFS)

School

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Criminal Justice

Abstract

Synthetic cathinones were identified as new psychoactive substances (NPS) in the early warning advisory system by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Synthetic cathinones have been commonly referred to as bath salts, which offered “legal highs” because they were not explicitly scheduled. These compounds were detected dur-ing the screening process in casework and required internal validation for confirmation. 3,4-methylenedioxy-α-cyclohexylaminopropiophenone was the target analyte for this study. It was alternatively named N-cyclohexyl methylone and “cyputylone." The aim of the study was to validate 3,4-methylenedioxy-α-cyclohexylaminopropiophenone into a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for identifying synthetic cathinones using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The validation study measured accuracy and precision, repeatability within and between runs, interference, limit of detection, and simulated casework samples. Acceptance criteria included ion ratios within ± 20% of a positive control, a retention time within ± 0.1 minutes of a positive control, and a library match quality score ≥ 80%. The percent coefficient of variance (%CV) was also calculated for some studies to show low variation and high consistency. Accuracy, pre-cision, and repeatability were observed through low %CV values from all positive con-trols and replicates throughout the validation. Interferents with a ±0.2 minutes retention time difference to the analyte’s retention time were analyzed in the presence of the tar-get analyte to be considered for coelution, retention time, or ion ratio interference. There were five compounds that coeluted and six compounds with retention time inter-ference with 3,4-methylenedioxy-α-cyclohexylaminopropiophenone identified. The lim-it of detection of the compound was found to be 50 µg/mL in methanol. Simulated casework samples containing 3,4-methylenedioxy-α-cyclohexylaminopropiophenone were prepared. 3,4-methylenedioxy-α-cyclohexylaminopropiophenone was confirmed in all simulated casework samples as they met all acceptance criteria. Validating a com-pound included confirming the identification of that analyte was accurate, precise, re-peatable, specific, and detectable. The synthetic cathinone, 3,4-methylenedioxy-α-cyclohexylaminopropiophenone, was successfully validated for drug chemistry confir-mational analysis through GC-MS.

Keywords

gas chromatography-mass spectrometry;method validation;synthetic cathinones

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