Braz publishes and presents synthetic cathinones research

March 9, 2021

Andre Braz, a Slippery Rock University assistant professor of chemistry, recently wrote a paper that was published in the Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, titled “Preliminary study on the identification of synthetic cathinones in street seized samples by Raman spectroscopy and chemometrics.” The paper describes a study, in collaboration with the Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil and two Brazilian scientific police institutes, of the synthetic cathinone psychoactive drugs, which is a stimulant similar to amphetamines that has become a menace to public health worldwide and a forensic challenge. Braz is also presenting two posters at the virtual Pittcon Conference this week about topics related to synthetic cathinones and Raman spectroscopy, which is a method to provide a structural fingerprint by which molecules can be identified. Pittcon is a conference conducted annually in Pittsburgh about analytical chemistry and applied spectroscopy.