Analysis of amphetamines in urine with liquid–liquid extraction by capillary electrophoresis with simultaneous electrochemical and electrochemiluminescence detection

Abstract Amphetamines including methamphetamine, 3,4‐methylenedioxyamphetamine and 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine were separated and detected by CE using simultaneous electrochemical (EC) and electrochemiluminescence (ECL) detection (CE‐EC/ECL). Factors that influenced the separation and detection performance, such as the detection potential, the pH value and concentration of the running buffer, the separation voltage and the pH of the detection buffer, were investigated. LODs of 3.3×10 −8 mol/L (0.16 fmol), 1.6×10 −7 mol/L (0.78 fmol) and 3.3×10 −8 mol/L (0.16 fmol) were obtained for methamphetamine, 3,4‐methylenedioxyamphetamine and 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine, respectively. For practical application, a liquid–liquid extraction with ethyl acetate procedure was developed for urine sample pretreatment and extraction efficiencies higher than 90% were obtained. The established simultaneous CE‐EC/ECL was successfully applied for urine sample analysis.