• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.228-234
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• 2013

Methamphetamine is an amine-containing illegal drug and is distributed unlawfully in South Korea. Finding a rapid, convenient and semi-quantitative determination method for methamphetamine is a very important issue in the area of forensic drug testing. As an effort to develop new screening method, the reactions between three organic compounds which are structurally similar to methamphetamine and N-(9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyloxy) succinimide (FMOC-NHS) were performed on silica gel ($SiO_2$) TLC plates. Three reference compounds were synthesized and used for the identification, comparison and study of the limit of detection (LOD) of the products obtained from a direct reaction on a TLC plate. As a result, FMOC-NHS as a derivatization reagent generated compounds containing highly UV-active functional groups on the TLC plate after reacting with primary- and secondary amines. In the experiment 2D the LOD of amines was in the range of 0.045 and 0.01 mg/mL ($2{\mu}L/spot$), and in 1D the LOD was in the range of 0.002 and 0.007 mg/mL ($2{\mu}L/spot$). The LODs of the compounds tested were dependent on the concentration of the derivatizing reagent.