Retraction: Qualitative/chiral sensing of amino acids by naked-eye fluorescence change based on morphological transformation and hierarchizing in supramolecular assemblies of pyrene-conjugated glycolipids

Abstract

Retraction of ‘Qualitative/chiral sensing of amino acids by naked-eye fluorescence change based on morphological transformation and hierarchizing in supramolecular assemblies of pyrene-conjugated glycolipids’ by Naohiro Kameta et al., Chem. Commun., 2015, 51, 11104–11107, https://doi.org/10.1039/C5CC03843J.

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We the named authors hereby wholly retract this Chemical Communications article due to the fact that the paper has wrong electron microscopy images in Fig. 2 and Fig. S8 (ESI) on the part of the first author, who is affiliated with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).

Fig. 2a and b should have displayed SEM and TEM images of the D-vesicle, which were prepared by dispersion of the film forming glycolipid 1-bilayer-membranes in water. However, the first author posted the SEM image of vesicles existing in the film before dispersion in water and the TEM image of irrelevant vesicles that were developed by the authors in other studies, for Fig. 2a and b, respectively. The incorrect images in Fig. 2a and b are also found to include serious errors with the scale bars, which were approximately 46 times longer and 0.2 times shorter than the actual lengths, respectively. Fig 2c, d, e and f also had errors with the scale bars, which were approximately 1.9, 3.0, 3.3 and 6.9 times longer than the actual lengths, respectively.

Fig. S8 should have displayed SEM images of the L-vesicle and the various nanostructures formed by morphological transformation of the L-vesicle upon addition of amino acids. However, the first author posted SEM images of the D-vesicle and the various nanostructures formed by morphological transformation of the D-vesicle upon addition of amino acids. The incorrect images in Fig. S8a, b, c and d are also found to include not only large errors with the scale bars, which were approximately 43, 2.3, 1.8 and 6.6 times longer than the actual lengths, respectively, but also inappropriate inversion of the images.

The authors respectfully retract this paper, because these events were determined to amount to scientific misconduct and the retraction of this paper was recommended by AIST. AIST verified that the first author was responsible for the misconducts and no other co-authors were engaged in them.

Signed: Mitsutoshi Masuda, Naohiro Kameta, Toshimi Shimizu

Date: 4th October 2024

Retraction endorsed by Richard Kelly, Executive Editor, Chemical Communications

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