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Correction: A polymeric membrane permeabilizer displaying densely packed arrays of crown ether lateral substituents
Ming Liua,
Anna Bertovab,
Nicolas Illya,
Blandine Brissaulta,
Jacques Penellea,
Karol Ondriasb and
Valessa Barbier*a
aInstitut de Chimie et des Matériaux Paris-Est (ICMPE), CNRS and Université Paris-Est, 2-8 rue Henri Dunant, 94320 Thiais, France. E-mail: barbier@icmpe.cnrs.fr; Fax: +33 1 49 78 12 08; Tel: +33 1 49 78 11 94
bInstitute of Molecular Physiology and Genetics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Vlarska 5, 833 34 Bratislava, Slovak Republic. E-mail: karol.ondrias@savba.sk; Fax: +421 2 54773666; Tel: +421 2 54774102
First published on 4th February 2016
Abstract
Correction for ‘A polymeric membrane permeabilizer displaying densely packed arrays of crown ether lateral substituents’ by Ming Liu et al., RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 8606–8609.
The authors wish to draw readers' attention to a possible error in part of the data interpretation and conclusions for the original article, as trace phosphazenium salt, used in the synthesis of the reported poly(crown ethers), may have influenced the polymer's reported permeabilization properties.
A recent investigation by the authors has demonstrated the permeabilization activity of the precursor (phosphazene base t-BuP4) for a phosphazenium salt, which was used as a polymerization activator in RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 8606–8609 and remained in the product as a trace contaminant. 8-Hydroxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid trisodium salt (HPTS) assays and black lipid membrane (BLM) experiments have confirmed that this precursor has lipid bilayer permeabilization activity.
Although findings that specifically verify the contribution of the phosphazenium salt to the polymer's permeabilization properties are unavailable, the authors highlight that the data published in the article are not sufficient to conclude that the poly(crown ethers) alone possess permeabilization activity. Although the observed cation selectivity may be attributed to the polymer, it could be speculated that the contaminant takes part in the permeabilization activity shown in Fig. 3 of the original article.
The Royal Society of Chemistry apologises for these errors and any consequent inconvenience to authors and readers.
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