Correction for ‘Removal of Pb(II) and Cd(II) from wastewater using arginine cross-linked chitosan–carboxymethyl cellulose beads as green adsorbent’ by Kaiser Manzoor et al., RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 7890–7902.

Correction for ‘Mechanistic study on NO reduction by sludge reburning in a pilot scale cement precalciner with different CO2 concentrations’ by Xiang Xiao et al., RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 22863–22874.

In this study, the in vivo hypoglycemic effect of a donut-shaped polyanion salt (NH4)14[Na@P5W30O110]·31H2O {NaP5W30} and its Ag-containing derivative K14[Ag@P5W30O110]·22H2O·6KCl {AgP5W30}, as well as their hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity, was evaluated. In the screening hypoglycemic study, Wistar albino rats with streptozotocin induced diabetes were treated intraperitoneally with three single doses (5, 10, and 20 mg per kg per b.w.) of both investigated polyoxotungstates. The blood glucose levels, measured before and after 2, 4 and 6 h polyoxotungstate application, showed that both studied compounds induced the most pronounced and time dependent glucose lowering effects at the doses of 20 mg kg−1. Thus, daily doses of 20 mg kg−1 were administered to Wistar albino rats orally for 14 days in further toxicity examinations. The serum glucose concentration and biochemical parameters of kidney and liver function, as well as a histopathological analysis of kidney and liver tissues were evaluated 14 days after the polyoxotungstate administration. Both investigated compounds did not induce statistically significant alterations of the serum glucose and uric acid concentrations, as well as some of the liver function markers (serum alanine and aspartate aminotransferases, and alkaline phosphatase activities). However, the significant decrease in serum total protein and albumin concentrations and the increase in biochemical parameters of renal function – serum urea (up to 63.1%) and creatinine concentrations (up to 23.3%) were observed for both polyoxotungstates. In addition, the detected biochemical changes were in accordance with kidney and liver histhopathological analysis. Accordingly, the hepatotoxic and nephrotoxic effects of these potential antidiabetic polyoxotungstates could be considered as mild.

The Comment on our publication [Prasongkit et al., RSC Adv., 2016, 64, 59299] is puzzling since it is well known that biphenyl is fairly non-reactive. Hence, it's not surprising we have low binding energies when the gas molecules were adsorbed on biphenyl dithiol (BPDT). The large binding energy of NO2 chemisorbed onto BPDT (∼2.04 eV) in the Comment conflicts with existing theoretical and experimental evidence. Grigoriev et al. have attempted to compare their results to our findings, employing different approximation schemes under the density functional theory (DFT) framework. Here, the effect of taking into account van der Waals (vdW) interactions upon the adsorption mechanism of small aromatic molecules has been discussed.