Retracted article: Hydrophilic hybrid materials with magnetism & NIR fluorescence via surface-initiated RAFT polymerization

We, the named authors, hereby wholly retract this Journal of Materials Chemistry B article due to the subsequent realisation that fluorescence measurements reported in the article should have been measured through a long-pass filter. The emission at 750 nm reported from the excitation of the monomer 1-(4-vinyl benzyl)-2-naphthyl-benzimidazole by UV light, is actually a second order diffraction artefact of the 380 nm emission. The claim that the monomer is capable of emitting near infrared fluorescence under UV light excitation in the article is false. Signed: Weiwei He, Lifen Zhang, Bing Han, Liang Cheng, Nianchen Zhou, Zhuang Liu and Zhenping Cheng, September 2013. Retraction endorsed by Liz Dunn, Managing Editor, Journal of Materials Chemistry B. Retraction published 24 September 2013