Retraction: Boric acid in magnetized water: clean and powerful media for synthesis of 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones

Retraction of ‘Boric acid in magnetized water: clean and powerful media for synthesis of 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones’ by Vahid Khakyzadeh et al., RSC Adv., 2021, 11, 22751–22755. DOI: 10.1039/D1RA03769B

We, the named authors, hereby wholly retract this RSC Advances article. Although we maintain that the results obtained in distilled water are accurate, and believe that further experiments will confirm our conclusions, following discussions between the authors and the Royal Society of Chemistry, we have determined that the evidence presented regarding magnetised water in this paper is insufficient to support the conclusions and needs further investigation. We are therefore retracting the paper to maintain the validity of the scientific record. The Royal Society of Chemistry apologises for the fact that these concerns were not identified during the peer review process.Signed: Vahid Khakyzadeh*^,a, Ahmad Reza Moosavi-Zare^b, Sahra Sheikhaleslami^a, Amir Ehsani^a, Salbin Sediqi^a, Mohammad Rezaei-Gohar^b and Zahra Jalilian^cDate: 27^th August 2021.Retraction endorsed by Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC Advances, 27^th, August 2021.     

Retraction: Self-association of L-periaxin occurs via its acidic domain and NLS2/NLS3, and affects its trafficking in RSC96 cells

Retraction of ‘Self-association of L-periaxin occurs via its acidic domain and NLS2/NLS3, and affects its trafficking in RSC96 cells’ by Yenan Yang et al., RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 44112–44123, DOI: 10.1039/C7RA06853K

The Royal Society of Chemistry, with the agreement of the authors, hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article due to concerns with the reliability of the data in the published article. The authors confirmed that the western blot images in Fig. 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 had been inappropriately manipulated. Given the significance of the concerns about the validity of the data, the findings presented in this paper are no longer reliable.Signed: Yenan Yang, Min Liang and Yawei ShiDate: 8^th April 2021Retraction endorsed by Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC Advances     

Retraction: Synthesis and characterization of Mn/Co/Ti LDH and its utilization as a photocatalyst in visible light assisted degradation of aqueous Rhodamine B

Retraction of ‘Synthesis and characterization of Mn/Co/Ti LDH and its utilization as a photocatalyst in visible light assisted degradation of aqueous Rhodamine B’ by Priyadarshi Roy Chowdhury and Krishna G. Bhattacharyya, RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 112016–112034.

The Royal Society of Chemistry hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article following a misconduct investigation carried out by Gauhati University.There are repeating motifs within the AFM image in Fig. 7A. Gauhati University have informed us that they have concluded that the AFM image is devoid of authenticity and has been manipulated or altered by the authors.Signed: Andrew Shore, Executive Editor, RSC AdvancesDate: 4^th February 2019     

Retraction: Olefin epoxidation with chiral salen Mn(iii) immobilized on ZnPS-PVPA upon alkyldiamine

Retraction of ‘Olefin epoxidation with chiral salen Mn(iii) immobilized on ZnPS-PVPA upon alkyldiamine’ by J. Huang et al., RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 19507–19514, DOI: 10.1039/C6RA00002A.

The Royal Society of Chemistry, with the agreement of the authors, hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article due to extensive overlap with other published articles by these authors, including the text, data and figures published in ref. 1, which was not cited in this article. Although there are sections of original work, there are significant portions of text overlap, particularly in the Results and discussion section. Fig. 1, 3, 4 and 5, Tables 1 and 2 and Schemes 1 and 2 in the RSC Advances article have also been reproduced from ref. 1.Signed: J. Huang, D. W. Qi, J. L. Cai and X. H. ChenDate: 19^th November 2020Retraction endorsed by Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC Advances     

Retraction: Challenges and opportunities of hydrothermal carbonisation in the UK; case study in Chirnside

Retraction of ‘Challenges and opportunities of hydrothermal carbonisation in the UK; case study in Chirnside’ by Eloise Bevan et al., RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 31586–31610, DOI: 10.1039/d0ra04607h.

We, the authors, hereby wholly retract this article due to an error in the calculations. In this article, only the electrical energy demand of Chirnside’s residents was considered and the total energy supply from the hydrochar produced by the modelled plant was taken as the total HHV (higher heating value) energy content contained in these pellets. Thus, the following calculations did not consider the efficiencies in the conversion of hydrochar into its usable forms of energy (electricity and thermal energies). Therefore, the statement that HTC can provide Chirnside’s residents with 35.6% of their energy demand is fundamentally incorrect.Having consulted with an independent expert, the Royal Society of Chemistry has determined that any changes made to the paper to correct this would be major, and therefore that the best course of action is retraction and republication of the article with the correct data. The Royal Society of Chemistry is happy that the overall conclusions of the paper are not affected by this error, and therefore that republication of the work with the correct data is appropriate. The republished article was peer reviewed and can be found at https://doi.org/10.1039/D1RA06736B.We, the authors, brought this matter to the attention of the Royal Society of Chemistry ourselves, and are happy with the decision to retract and republish this article.Signed: Eloise Bevan, Jile Fu and Ying ZhengDate: 15/10/2021Retraction endorsed by Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC Advances     

Retraction: Tuning the chemistry of graphene oxides by a sonochemical approach: application of adsorption properties

Retraction of ‘Tuning the chemistry of graphene oxides by a sonochemical approach: application of adsorption properties’ by Yubing Sun et al., RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 24886–24892, DOI: 10.1039/C5RA02021B.

The Royal Society of Chemistry, with the agreement of the named authors, hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article due to concerns with the reliability of the data in the published article.The TEM image in Fig. 1B duplicates data published in another publication by Pan et al., but presented as different materials.¹The AFM images in Fig. 1C and D illustrate duplication of data, given that these experiments were reported under different reaction conditions.The EXAFS spectra in Fig. 4 duplicate data in another publication, but reported as different materials.²Given the number and significance of the concerns about the validity of the data, the findings presented in this paper are no longer reliable.Signed: Yubing Sun, Shubin Yang, Congcong Ding and Wencai ChengDate: 27^th March 2020Zhongxiu Jin was contacted but did not respond.Retraction endorsed by Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC Advances     

Retraction: Effect of temperature and large guest molecules on the C–H symmetric stretching vibrational frequencies of methane in structure H and I clathrate hydrates

Retraction of ‘Effect of temperature and large guest molecules on the C–H symmetric stretching vibrational frequencies of methane in structure H and I clathrate hydrates’ by Akihiro Hachikubo et al., RSC Adv., 2018, 8, 3237–3242, DOI: 10.1039/c7ra12334e.

We, the authors, hereby wholly retract this article due to the incorrect calibration of temperature in the Raman measurements. This incorrect calibration means that the temperature values for Raman spectroscopy shown in the article were inaccurate, and the actual temperature range was higher than the range reported in the original article.Having consulted with an independent expert, the Royal Society of Chemistry has determined that any changes made to the paper to correct this would be major, and therefore that the best course of action is retraction and republication of the article with the correct data. The Royal Society of Chemistry is happy that the overall conclusions of the paper are not affected by this error, and therefore that republication of the work with the correct data is appropriate. The republished article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1039/D0RA02748K.We, the authors, brought this matter to the attention of the Royal Society of Chemistry ourselves, and are happy with the decision to retract and republish this article.Signed: Akihiro Hachikubo (on behalf of the authors)Date: 15^th April 2020Retraction endorsed by Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC Advances     

Retraction: ASIC1a involves acidic microenvironment-induced activation and autophagy of pancreatic stellate cells

Retraction of ‘ASIC1a involves acidic microenvironment-induced activation and autophagy of pancreatic stellate cells’ by Tao Wang et al., RSC Adv., 2018, 8, 30950–30956, DOI: 10.1039/C8RA03679A.

The Royal Society of Chemistry, with the agreement of the authors, hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article due to concerns with the reliability of the data in the published article. After publication, the authors contacted the journal to explain that the published western blot images had been edited and arranged because some bands not mentioned in the article had been deleted and the loading order of the samples in the original experimental groups had been adjusted. There is evidence of manipulation affecting the western blot images in Fig. 3A and 4A, and discrepancies in the background of Fig. 6A. The authors confirmed that they do not have the whole raw data for the published western blot images. Although the authors state that they have repeated the experiment and obtained similar results, the concerns over the integrity and validity of the images shown in the published article cannot be dispelled.Given the significance of the concerns about the validity of the data, and the lack of raw data, the findings presented in this paper are no longer reliable. All of the authors agree with the retraction.Signed: Tao Wang, Qian-qian Wang, Gui-xia Pan, Guo-rong Jia, Xiao Li, Chao Wang, Li-ming Zhang and Chang-jing ZuoDate: 7^th April 2021Retraction endorsed by Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC Advances     

Retraction: Organometallic Ag nanostructures prepared using Hypericum perforatum extract are highly effective against multidrug-resistant bacteria

Retraction of ‘Organometallic Ag nanostructures prepared using Hypericum perforatum extract are highly effective against multidrug-resistant bacteria’ by Qaisar Maqbool et al., RSC Adv., 2018, 8, 30562–30572.

We, the named authors, wholly retract this RSC Advances article.The authors have repeated the FTIR and TGA analyses of the nanoparticles synthesised using H. perforatum, and also obtained the original data files from the facility that carried out the initial analyses. The authors have compared the new results and the original data files with the data in the published article. They found that the graphs presented in Fig. 7a and b in the article did not correspond to neither the original data nor the new analysis. They also found that the same TGA graph (Fig. 7b) was used in previous articles by the first author but representing a different material.^1,2The Institute of Plant Genetics of the Polish Academy of Sciences have confirmed to the Royal Society of Chemistry that graphs presented in Fig. 7 of this RSC Advances article were manipulated.The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to readers.Signed: Dariusz Kruszka, Piotr Kachlicki and Gregory FranklinDate: 5^th April 2019Qaisar Maqbool opposes this retraction.Retraction endorsed by Andrew Shore, Executive Editor, RSC Advances     

Retraction: Enhanced adsorption of ionizable aromatic compounds on humic acid-coated carbonaceous adsorbents

Retraction of ‘Enhanced adsorption of ionizable aromatic compounds on humic acid-coated carbonaceous adsorbents’ by Yubing Sun et al., RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 10359–10364, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA21713A.

The Royal Society of Chemistry, with the agreement of the named authors, hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article due to concerns with the reliability of the data in the published article.Repeating fragments can be observed in the XRD spectrum for GONs in Fig. 1C, which indicates that it has been manipulated. In addition, there are unexpected similarities in the baseline of the XRD data presented for MWCNTs and AC (Fig. 1C) in the 32.5–40° and 45–57.5° regions.Given the significance of the concern about the validity of the data, the findings presented in this paper are no longer reliable.Signed: Yubing Sun, Dadong Shao, Guixia Zhao, Shubin Yang and Xiangke WangDate: 27^th March 2020Changlun Chen, Jiaxing Li and Xiaoli Tan were contacted but did not respond.Retraction endorsed by Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC Advances     

Retraction: LncRNA SNHG5 regulates the cell viability and apoptosis of glioma cells by the miR-1297/KPNA2 axis

Retraction of ‘LncRNA SNHG5 regulates the cell viability and apoptosis of glioma cells by the miR-1297/KPNA2 axis’ by Xueyuan Li et al., RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 1498–1506, DOI: 10.1039/C9RA08693E

The Royal Society of Chemistry hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article due to concerns with the reliability of the data. The images in the article, and the raw data provided by the authors, were screened by an image integrity expert. The backgrounds to the individual panels of the raw data were sometimes almost blank, and had very large pixels, whereas the bands themselves had good resolution. It is therefore possible that the rows of bands were placed onto false backgrounds. Therefore, the raw data provided by the authors cannot be used as verifiable raw data to validate the published data.Given the significance of the concerns about the validity of both the data in the article and the raw data provided by the authors, the findings presented in this paper are not reliable.The authors have been informed but have not responded to any correspondence regarding the retraction.Signed: Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC AdvancesDate: 19^th January 2021     

Retraction: Equilibrium and kinetic studies on adsorptive removal of malachite green by the citrate-stabilized magnetite nanoparticles

Retraction of ‘Equilibrium and kinetic studies on adsorptive removal of malachite green by the citrate-stabilized magnetite nanoparticles’ by Rashmi Rani Mishra et al., RSC Adv., 2014, 4, 51787–51793, DOI: 10.1039/C4RA07651F.

The Royal Society of Chemistry hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article due to concerns with the reliability of the data in the published article.Repeating fragments can be observed in the XRD spectrum in Fig. 1D, which indicates that it has been manipulated. In addition, there are a number of identical particles replicated within the TEM image that was used in the graphical abstract suggesting that the image has also been manipulated. Given the significance of the concerns about the validity of the data, the findings presented in this paper are no longer reliable.S. Sudheer Khan opposes this retraction. Rashmi Rani Mishra and Preethy Chandran were contacted but did not respond.Signed: Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC AdvancesDate: 28^th July 2020     

Retraction: Structural characterization of centipede oligopeptides and capability detection in human small cell lung carcinoma: inducing apoptosis

Retraction of ‘Structural characterization of centipede oligopeptides and capability detection in human small cell lung carcinoma: inducing apoptosis’ by JingQuan Zhao et al., RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 10927–10936, https://doi.org/10.1039/C8RA09018A.

The Royal Society of Chemistry hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article due to a significant amount of unattributed text overlap throughout the article, and particularly with ref. 1 in the Results and discussion section and ref. 2 in the Conclusion section.Jie Liu opposes the retraction. The other authors have been informed but have not responded to any correspondence regarding the retraction.Signed: Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC AdvancesDate: 29^th March 2022     

Retraction: Simultaneous sorption and reduction of U(vi) on magnetite–reduced graphene oxide composites investigated by macroscopic,spectroscopic and modeling techniques

Retraction of ‘Simultaneous sorption and reduction of U(vi) on magnetite–reduced graphene oxide composites investigated by macroscopic, spectroscopic and modeling techniques’ by Wencai Cheng et al., RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 59677–59685, DOI: 10.1039/C5RA10451C.

The Royal Society of Chemistry, with the agreement of the authors, hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article due to concerns with the reliability of the data in the published article.The SEM image in Fig. 1C duplicates data published in another publication, but reported as different materials.¹There are unexpected similarities in the XPS spectra presented for M1–rGO and M5–rGO in Fig. 2A.Repeating fragments can be observed in the baseline of the XRD spectrum for GO presented in Fig. 2B, which indicate that it has been manipulated. In addition, the XRD spectrum for M5–rGO in Fig. 2B duplicates data published in ref. 1 and 2, but they have been reported as different materials.Given the number and significance of the concerns about the validity of the data, the findings presented in this paper are no longer reliable.Signed: Wencai Cheng, Zhongxiu Jin, Congcong Ding and Maolin WangDate: 27^th March 2020Retraction endorsed by Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC Advances     

Retraction: Amino acid derived highly luminescent,heteroatom-doped carbon dots for label-free detection of Cd2+/Fe3+, cell imaging and enhanced antibacterial activity

Retraction of ‘Amino acid derived highly luminescent, heteroatom-doped carbon dots for label-free detection of Cd²⁺/Fe³⁺, cell imaging and enhanced antibacterial activity’ by Paramita Karfa et al., RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 58141–58153.

The Royal Society of Chemistry hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article due to concerns with the reliability of the data in the published article.A repeating pattern can be observed in the XPS spectra in Fig. 2C in the 390–396 eV range. The XPS data also duplicates data that was presented in another publication, but reported as a different material.¹The TEM image in Fig. 3A has been used in another publication, but reported as a different material.²The bacterial growth curves in Fig. 3F illustrate duplication of data, which were reported as different bacterial strains. The growth curves also duplicate data presented in other publications.^3,4The fluorescence microscopy images in Fig. 5A and B have been used in another publication, but reported as different materials.⁵The concentration stability data points in Fig. S2 have been duplicated in Fig. S3 as pH stability data points.Given the number and significance of the concerns, the validity of the data and, therefore, the conclusions presented in this paper are no longer reliable.The Royal Society of Chemistry apologises for the fact that these concerns were not identified during the peer review process.Paramita Karfa, Santanu Patra, Rashmi Madhuri and Prashant K. Sharma oppose the retraction. Ekta Roy, Sunil Kumar and Abhrajyoti Tarafdar were contacted but did not respond.Signed: Andrew Shore, Executive Editor, RSC Advances.Date: 23rd November 2018.     

Retraction: An efficient one pot three-component synthesis of 2,4,6-triarylpyridines using triflimide as a metal-free catalyst under solvent-free conditions

Retraction of ‘An efficient one pot three-component synthesis of 2,4,6-triarylpyridines using triflimide as a metal-free catalyst under solvent-free conditions’ by Hongshe Wang et al., RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 5158–5163, DOI: 10.1039/C9RA00653B.

The Royal Society of Chemistry hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article. The NMR spectra for compounds 3a–3k and 3s–3u in the ESI have been reproduced without permission from a Tetrahedron Letters paper by Fei Ling et al.¹ The authors stated that as their 2,4,6-triarylpyridines products are known, they only characterised three of their compounds using ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR, which were identical to those reported in the literature. Therefore, the authors do not have full characterisation data for their published paper.Hongshe Wang opposes the retraction. Weixing Zhao, Juan Du, Fenyan Wei, Qi Chen and Xiaomei Wang were contacted but did not respond.Signed: Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC AdvancesDate: 16^th June 2020     

Retraction: Graphene oxide/DNA-decorated electrode for the fabrication of microRNA biosensor

Retraction of ‘Graphene oxide/DNA-decorated electrode for the fabrication of microRNA biosensor’ by Erlin Sun et al., RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 69334–69338, DOI: 10.1039/C5RA12373A.

We, the named authors, hereby wholly retract this RSC Advances article due to a lack of reproducibility in the results of the paper. We have been unable to replicate the results of miRNA detection, shown in Fig. 8, and as a result, the conclusions of this paper are not supported.Signed: Erlin Sun, Lining Wang, Xiaodong Zhou, Chengquan Ma, Yan Sun, Mingde Lei, Bingxin Lu and Ruifa HanDate: 14^th July 2020Retraction endorsed by Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC Advances     

Retraction: Wavelength modulation of ZnO nanowire based organic light-emitting diodes with ultraviolet electroluminescence

Retraction of ‘Wavelength modulation of ZnO nanowire based organic light-emitting diodes with ultraviolet electroluminescence’ by Runze Chen et al., RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 23775–23781, DOI: 10.1039/D0RA04058D.

We, the named authors, hereby wholly retract this RSC Advances article due to a calibration error in the CVD tool used when fabricating the inverted UV-OLED devices. As a result, the subsequent data collected is not reliable and the conclusions of this paper are not supported.Signed: Runze Chen, Chuan Liu, Kyeiwaa Asare-Yeboah, Ziyang Zhang, Zhengran He and Yun LiuDate: 29^th November 2020Retraction endorsed by Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC Advances