The journal Nature Synthesis has pulled a high-profile article describing the creation of a new type of carbon after a university investigation found some data were made up.
Valentin Rodionov, an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, whose team has been investigating the now-retracted work for the past two years, explained that the authors used a "method called ‘alkyne metathesis,’ which was always expected to be the path to this new material. While this approach failed to work for the last 25 years, in the hands of the authors it has seemingly produced the desired result". But the findings didn’t hold up when Rodionov and his colleagues looked more closely.
A retraction notice stated: "A formal investigation was launched by the Office of Research Integrity at the University of Colorado after concerns were raised about the validity of some of the data reported in this work. From this investigation, it was concluded that the data used to produce Supplementary Figure S10 were fabricated and that the procedures used to produce Figure 2b deviated from standard practices. The investigation committee agreed that the data in Figure S10 are not critical to support the major claim of the manuscript and do not affect the overall scientific advance presented in a significant way. Out of a sense of responsibility, the authors have decided to retract the Article."
