Chemical submission and particularly drug-facilitated sexual assaults (DFSA) constitute a growing global threat to public safety. Psychoactive substances such as synthetic cathinones, ketamine, and scopolamine are frequently employed in these crimes due to their availability and incapacitating effect, which are often enhanced when co-ingested with alcohol. Consequently, there is an urgent demand for rapid, cost-effective, and on-site detection methods that can operate directly in complex matrices like beverages or biological fluids. In this study, a novel fluorogenic sensing system, based on a meso -4-nitrophenyl BODIPY derivative and Cu(II), has been developed. The system functions as a “turn-on” fluorogenic probe, where the target drugs—synthetic cathinones, ketamine, or scopolamine—trigger the reduction of Cu(II) to Cu(I), leading to an increase of the fluorescence intensity of the BODIPY dye. Mechanistic studies using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and radical scavengers, support a radical pathway, probably involving the formation of nitro radical anion. The probe demonstrated robust performance in water and real beverages, including alcoholic and soft drinks, showing detection limits well below the concentrations required for chemical submission. Notably, rapid visual detection was achieved in beverages in just 15 s using a common lighter as a heating source. Furthermore, the method's applicability was successfully extended to synthetic urine samples, highlighting their potential utility for real-time forensic screening. • A turn-on fluorogenic probe for cathinones, ketamine and scopolamine. • Fast and in situ naked-eye detection in water, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages. • Excellent selectivity and low limits of detection. • The sensing mechanism involves the initial formation of radical species.
Roig-Rubio et al. (Sun,) studied this question.
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