Ali Moaddeli*, Mehran Fereidooni, Marzieh Nabipour, Razieh Parchami and Mahmoud Tabrizchi
Interest in facile and sensitive methods for cyanide detection is related to the extreme cyanide toxicity and its importance in forensic toxicology. In this research a novel application of Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) was demonstrated for rapid determination of cyanide poisoning in postmortem toxicology. In addition, a simple method for the sample preparation was applied based on the analyte (cyanide anion) transfer as HCN to the headspace and direct injection to IMS. The method showed a linear dynamic range of 50-2000 μg L-1 with R2 > 0.99, a high sensitivity (LOD of 20.4 μg L-1 and LOQ of 68.1 μg L-1). Good repeatability (intra- and interassays CV<15%) and excellent extraction recovery (82%-94%) were obtained. After validation, the method was applied in the analysis of postmortem human blood samples in forensic cases. In all samples, the cyanide was promptly quantified.