The Editor retracts “Lamellar Graphene Oxide-Based Composite Membranes for Efficient Separation of Heavy Metal Ions and Desalination of Water” (DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.2c07243), due to irregularities in the presented data and high number of image duplications across publications that resulted in a loss of confidence in the results. The XPS spectra in Figures 2c and 2d are inexplicably similar despite reporting different materials, and appear to be presenting the same data with different peak deconvolutions. The XPS spectra presented for graphene oxide in Figure 2b is highly similar or identical to GO XPS spectra in other publications (10.1039/d3nj04552h, 10.1016/j.seppur.2020.117969 and 10.1038/s41467–018–03919–0). The XPS spectra for GO/OE in Figure 2c is highly similar to the XPS of As@GO membranes in 3b of 10.1039/d3nj04552h. Figures 5a and 5g were found to be duplicated from 2d and 2j, respectively, in 10.1038/s41467–018–03919–0. The latter duplication presents a different pH and days of exposure. Lastly, Figure 1c has matching features to a section of Figure 1c in 10.1021/acsomega.2c03907, which is reported to be a different material. As such, this Article is being retracted.
The original article was published on February 13, 2023 and was retracted on January 6, 2026.