Fentanyl and its analogues are potent synthetic opioids used for pain relief or as anaesthetics in healthcare. However, they are also illicitly synthesised for use as recreational drugs. Dispersed fentanyl agents may be sampled as a means of collecting evidence of illegal fentanyl use. Previously, we showed that synthesis methods of fentanyl analogues could be classified based on impurity profiles, irrespective of acyl derivatization, using a multivariate classification model. In this study, we investigated whether traces of fentanyl analogues on surfaces could be sampled and the associated impurity profiles extracted. Fentanyl analogues were dispersed onto three different floor surfaces and one cloth surface commonly found in indoor environments. Samples were collected from hard surfaces after 24 h using cotton swabs. Analogues were extracted from the cotton swabs or directly from cloth surfaces, analysed by GC–MS and UHPLC–HRMS, and the resulting chemical profiles were classified using a previously developed classification model. The findings showed that the impurity profiles of swab-samples collected from different surfaces exposed to fentanyl could be used to determine the method used to synthesise specific fentanyl analogues.

芬太尼及其类似物是有效的合成阿片类药物，可用于缓解疼痛或在医疗保健中用作麻醉剂。但是，它们也被非法合成用作休闲药物。可以对分散的芬太尼剂进行采样，以收集非法使用芬太尼的证据。以前，我们表明使用多变量分类模型，可以基于杂质分布对芬太尼类似物的合成方法进行分类，而与酰基衍生化无关。在这项研究中，我们调查了是否可以对表面上的芬太尼类似物痕迹进行采样并提取相关的杂质分布。芬太尼类似物被分散在室内环境中常见的三种不同地板表面和一种布表面上。24小时后，使用棉签从坚硬的表面收集样品。从棉签或直接从布表面提取类似物，通过GC-MS和UHPLC-HRMS分析，并使用先前开发的分类模型对所得化学特征进行分类。研究结果表明，从暴露于芬太尼不同表面上收集的拭子样品的杂质分布可用于确定合成特定芬太尼类似物的方法。