Detection of Amphetamine with Graphene Quantum Dots

Abstract: Amphetamine abuse is an enduring problem in many developed nations, including Sweden. It causes lasting damage both to its users and in the form of increased strain on healthcare services. It is therefore critical that police be equipped with the tools necessary to rapidly and accurately identify any samples in order to combat this scourge. Current analysis methods rely on large complex machines such as gas-chromatographs. This causes a significant bottleneck as all samples must be sent to lab for analysis. In this report the potential application of graphene quantum dots(GQDs) as a sensor for amphetamine has been studied. These offer a potentially quick and cheap analysis method that could be integrated into an easily portable detector. It was found that GQDs synthesised by a simple method from citric acid shows increased photo-luminescence in the presence of amphetamine. The response is largely linear with increasing concentrations of amphetamine within an interval of 1mM-200mM. This indicates they may very well serve as a sensing element of an amphetamine detector.