Solid-phase extraction followed by liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry to determine synthetic cathinones in different types of environmental water samples

The method was validated with effluent sewage samples providing suitable figures of merit, with method quantification limits ranging from 1 ng/L to 5 ng/L and method detection limits from 0.1 ng/L to 0.5 ng/L for all the compounds. Of the different cathinones studied, three, namely methylone, mephedrone metabolite and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, were quantified at concentration levels of low ng/L in each of the different samples analysed, while a number of the other cathinones were also detected in some of the samples.