A comprehensive chromatographic comparison of amphetamine and methylamphetamine extracted from river water using molecular imprinted polymers and without the need for sample derivatization

This work explores the differences between two GCMS instruments for the determination of amphetamine and methylamphetamine extracted from water samples (ultra pure water and river water) without the necessity for derivatization. The instruments contained different generations of gas chromatograph and mass selective detector components and revealed significantly different results when presented with the same samples. The extraction methodology also compared two SPE systems. The extraction efficiency of commercially available molecular imprinted polymers as a sorbent in SPE was compared with commonly used hydrophilic balance sorbent. Molecular imprinted polymers provided excellent recoveries (81 +/- 2% and 108 +/- 3% at 30 mu g L-1, and 94 +/- 2% and 94 +/- 2% at 200 mu g L-1 for amphetamine and methylamphetamine, respectively). The best LOD obtained was sufficient for the determination of both drugs extracted from river water (0.029 +/- 0.003 and 0.015 +/- 0.004 mu g L-1 for amphetamine and methylamphetamine, respectively). These were comparable to literature values obtained through conventional extraction and analysis using LC-MS/MS but had the advantage of being achieved using an underivatized GCMS method.