Comprehensive Synthesis of 20 Fentanyl Derivatives for Their Rapid Differentiation by GC-MS Analysis

Fentanyl, a selective agonist of opioid & mu; receptors, is a broadly used clinical agent for anesthesia and pain relief. Despite its clinical benefits, the abuse of fentanyl and its derivatives causes a number of health concerns, which are increasing at an alarming rate; its abuse has become a serious social problem. These compounds are often difficult to obtain as reagents, which hinders forensic toxicological analysis. Therefore, it is important to address their unavailability by synthesizing the structural derivatives of fentanyl. In this study, we synthesized 20 fentanyl derivatives, such as o- or p-fluorofentanyl and furanylfentanyl, and determined their purities using HPLC (95.2%-100%). Moreover, the GC-MS analysis of the synthesized fentanyl derivatives was performed for the rapid differentiation of the synthesized fentanyl derivatives. We demonstrate that our method achieves a convenient and efficient synthesis of fentanyl derivatives.