Retracted article: Design, synthesis, and study of benzobis- and bibenz(imidazolium)-based ionic liquid crystals

The Royal Society of Chemistry hereby wholly retracts this Journal of Materials Chemistry article with the agreement of Christopher W. Bielawski 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 thermal plots in this article were falsified from original data – the enumerated figures do not accurately reflect the raw data. Specifically, the thermal data in Figure 2 was falsified. The thermal data in Supplementary Figures S1-S3 was also falsified. The original data in Figure 2 and Supplementary Figures S1-S3 was manipulated to make the peaks appear larger or smaller than they originally were. The signing authors would like to apologise for this and any consequent inconvenience to authors and readers. Signed: Christopher W. Bielawski and Kelly M. Wiggins, March 2015

[1]  R. A. Osteryoung,et al.  An electrochemical and spectroscopic study of some aromatic hydrocarbons in the room temperature molten salt system aluminum chloride-n-butylpyridinium chloride , 1979 .

[2]  J. J. Cebe,et al.  Room-Temperature Thermotropic Ionic Liquid Crystals: Viologen Bis(Triflimide) Salts , 2004 .

[3]  C. Tschierske.  Micro-segregation, molecular shape and molecular topology – partners for the design of liquid crystalline materials with complex mesophase morphologies , 2001 .

[4]  K. R. Seddon,et al.  Crystal and liquid crystalline polymorphism in 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrachloropalladate(II) salts , 2001 .

[5]  G. R. Luckhurst.  Liquid crystals: a chemical physicist's view , 2005 .

[6]  M. Firestone,et al.  Formation of a Biomimetic, Liquid-Crystalline Hydrogel by Self-Assembly and Polymerization of an Ionic Liquid , 2007 .

[7]  A. Mudring,et al.  Imidazolium based ionic liquid crystals: structure, photophysical and thermal behaviour of [Cnmim]Br·xH2O (n = 12, 14; x=0, 1) , 2008 .

[8]  M. Kimura,et al.  Photoluminescent Liquid Crystals Based on Trithienylphosphine Oxides , 2009 .

[9]  H. Monobe,et al.  Anion-driven mesogenicity: ionic liquid crystals based on the [closo-1-CB9H10]−cluster , 2009 .

[10]  V. Causin,et al.  Effect of a structural modification of the bipyridinium core on the phase behaviour of viologen-based bistriflimide salts , 2009 .

[11]  N. Clark,et al.  A Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Conglomerate Composed of Racemic Molecules , 2000, Science.

[12]  K. Lava,et al.  Pyrrolidinium ionic liquid crystals with pendant mesogenic groups. , 2009, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[13]  J. J. Cebe,et al.  Ambient temperature thermotropic liquid crystalline viologen bis(triflimide) salts , 2003 .

[14]  H. Ohno,et al.  Nanostructured ion‐conductive films: Layered assembly of a side‐chain liquid‐crystalline polymer with an imidazolium ionic moiety , 2003 .

[15]  U. Kragl,et al.  Ionic liquids for aqueous two‐phase extraction and stabilization of enzymes , 2008, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[16]  Tom Welton,et al.  Room-temperature ionic liquids: solvents for synthesis and catalysis. 2. , 1999, Chemical reviews.

[17]  K. R. Seddon,et al.  New catanionic surfactants based on 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium alkylsulfonates, [C(n)H(2n+1)mim][C(m)H(2m+1)SO(3)]: mesomorphism and aggregation. , 2009, Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics - PCCP.

[18]  C. Ong,et al.  Indent and bulge-discogens for controlling the columnar mesophase , 2009 .

[19]  J. Seddon.  Structural Studies of Liquid Crystals by X‐Ray Diffraction , 2008 .

[20]  H. Ohno,et al.  One-dimensional ion-conductive polymer films: alignment and fixation of ionic channels formed by self-organization of polymerizable columnar liquid crystals. , 2006, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[21]  K. R. Seddon,et al.  LIQUID-CRYSTALLINE IONIC LIQUIDS , 1996 .

[22]  K. Lava,et al.  Pyrrolidinium ionic liquid crystals. , 2009, Chemistry.

[23]  F. Saeva.  Liquid crystals : the fourth state of matter , 1979 .

[24]  John Maddox,et al.  Waves caused by extreme dilution , 1988, Nature.

[25]  Peter J. Collings,et al.  Handbook Of Liquid Crystal Research , 1997 .

[26]  N. Clark,et al.  Polarization-Modulated Smectic Liquid Crystal Phases , 2003, Science.

[27]  Clark,et al.  Spontaneous formation of macroscopic chiral domains in a fluid smectic phase of achiral molecules , 1997, Science.

[28]  C. Hussey,et al.  Dialkylimidazolium chloroaluminate melts: a new class of room-temperature ionic liquids for electrochemistry, spectroscopy and synthesis , 1982 .

[29]  C. Hardacre,et al.  Small-Angle X-ray Scattering Studies of Liquid Crystalline 1-Alkyl-3-methylimidazolium Salts , 2002 .

[30]  J. Goodby.  Chirality in liquid crystals , 1991 .

[31]  K. R. Seddon,et al.  The phase behaviour of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborates; ionic liquids and ionic liquid crystals , 1999 .

[32]  M. Grätzel,et al.  Hydrophobic, Highly Conductive Ambient-Temperature Molten Salts. , 1996, Inorganic chemistry.

[33]  Andrew J Boydston,et al.  Ionic liquids via efficient, solvent-free anion metathesis , 2007 .

[34]  Andrew J Boydston,et al.  Phase-tunable fluorophores based upon benzobis(imidazolium) salts. , 2007, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[35]  J. Maddox.  Crystals from first principles , 1988, Nature.

[36]  S. Handy,et al.  The Chemistry of the C2 Position of Imidazolium Room Temperature Ionic Liquids , 2007 .

[37]  V. Lynch,et al.  Synthesis and Study of 5,5′‐Bibenzimidazolylidenes and Their Bimetallic Complexes , 2009 .

[38]  J. Y. Chiou,et al.  Ionic liquid crystals of imidazolium salts with a pendant hydroxyl group , 2006 .

[39]  "Nonsolvent" applications of ionic liquids in biotransformations and organocatalysis. , 2008 .

[40]  S. Bellemin‐Laponnaz,et al.  Liquid Crystal Imidazolium Salts: Towards Materials for Catalysis and Molecular Electronics , 2007 .

[41]  Peter Wasserscheid,et al.  Ionic Liquids in Synthesis , 2002 .

[42]  Luc Van Meervelt,et al.  Imidazolium ionic liquid crystals with pendant mesogenic groups , 2008 .

[43]  H. Ritter,et al.  Polymerizable ionic liquid crystals. , 2009, Macromolecular rapid communications.

[44]  K. Binnemans.  Ionic liquid crystals. , 2005, Chemical reviews.

[45]  C. Bielawski,et al.  Oxidation of poly(enetetramine)s: a new strategy for the synthesis of conjugated polyelectrolytes. , 2009, Chemical communications.

[46]  John W. Goodby,et al.  Handbook of liquid crystals , 1998 .

[47]  V. Causin,et al.  Effect of asymmetric substitution on the mesomorphic behaviour of low-melting viologen salts of bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amide , 2009 .

[48]  Alan R. Kennedy,et al.  Ionic liquid crystals: hexafluorophosphate salts , 1998 .

[49]  Christopher A. Hunter,et al.  The nature of .pi.-.pi. interactions , 1990 .

[50]  John W. Goodby,et al.  Smectic Liquid Crystals: Textures and Structures , 1984 .