Electrochemiluminescence sensors and forensic investigations: A viable technique for drug detection?

Abstract

Novel psychoactive substances (NPS) are today considered one of the major ticking public health time bombs in regard to drug abuse. The inability to identify these substances with current screening methods, sees their distribution remain uninterrupted and contributes to the high death rates amongst users. To tackle this problem, it is vital that new robust screening methods are developed, addressing the limitation of those currently in place, namely colour subjectivity and lack of compatibility with the complex matrices these substances may be found within. To this avail, electrochemical methods have been assessed. These low cost and extremely portable sensors have been successfully applied for the direct detection of a broad range of compounds of interest in a range of matrices including, herbal material, commercial drinks and biological fluids (serum, saliva, sweat and urine). With their high versatility, gifted through a significant degree of flexibility in regard to electrode material a range of sensors have to date been reported. In this review the various electrochemical sensors developed to date for NPS detection will be compared and contrasted, with a special focus upon those utilising electrochemiluminescence (ECL) technology.