Retraction notice to “Enhanced membraneless fuel cells by electrooxidation of ethylene glycol with a nanostructured cobalt metal catalyst” [Environ. Res. 233 (2023) 115601] (Environmental Research (2023) 233, (S0013935123003936), (10.1016/j.envres.2023.115601))

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier policy on article withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/article-withdrawal). This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor. Concerns about this article were raised on PubPeer at https://pubpeer.com/publications/E18A99AF094446E7F0386F47E88F17#, and separately by a reader beforehand. The Editor assessed these concerns and has determined that XRD patterns (Fig. 3) appear suspicious, particularly the curvature, where visual inspection suggests the possibility of backtracking (although this remains unconfirmed without the raw data). As such there is a reasonable possibility that these patterns have been hand drawn by the authors. Furthermore, the authors used the same instrument and conditions to collect the XRD patterns for a related article in another journal. However, the styles of the XRD patterns in the two articles differ significantly – the one in the other journal contains noise, while the one in the article in question appears excessively smooth - raising further concerns. Similarly, Figures 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are all suspicious and the results may have been fabricated, although the raw data which was not supplied is needed for conclusive confirmation. Similar background noise in the EDX spectra (Figure 5) are also suspicious. For all of these reasons, the Editor has therefore lost confidence in the reliability of the findings presented in this article as a whole, and is retracting it. Additionally, an unauthorised authorship change was made when the revised version of this paper was submitted, following suggestions for relatively minor revisions from the reviewers and Guest Editor, with authors Mohammed F. Albeshr, Abdulwahed Fahad Alrefaei and Woong Kim being added to the paper. No satisfactory explanation was given for this change, nor was it approved by the editor. This authorship change breaches the policies of the journal and as a result, the editors no longer have confidence in this paper and are retracting it. The journal apologises for not having identified the problematic authorship change during the review process and for any resulting inconvenience.