Retracted article: Selective scission of pyridine–boronium complexes: mechanical generation of Brønsted bases and polymerizationcatalysts

Abstract

The Royal Society of Chemistry hereby wholly retracts this Journal of Materials Chemistry article with the agreement of Christopher W. Bielawski, Andrew G. Tennyson and Kelly M. Wiggins (other co-authors could not be reached) due to data fabrication as detailed below. This retraction supersedes the information provided in the Expression of Concern related to this article. The Royal Society of Chemistry has been contacted by the corresponding author of this article and the Research Integrity Officer at The University of Texas at Austin regarding concerns of scientific misconduct affecting this article. The Research Integrity Officer has informed us that an investigation to ascertain the validity of the work reported has found that scientific misconduct by one of the articles co-authors has taken place as follows: the kinetics data and plots in this article were fabricated. Specifically, the rates and associated data in the Results and Discussion section were fabricated. The data acquired from the kinetics experiments discussed in the Supporting Information section entitled “3. Polymer Chain Scission Experiments: Kinetic Analyses”, was fabricated. The data found in Figures 1B, 1C, and 1D, Supplementary Figures S5 and S6, and Supplementary Table S2 was fabricated. In addition, all of the Gel Permeation Chromatographs presented in this article and the accompanying Supplementary Information were smoothed. The signing authors would like to apologise for this and any consequent inconvenience to authors and readers. Signed: Christopher W. Bielawski, Andrew G. Tennyson and Kelly M. Wiggins, March 2015