Supercritical Fluid Facilitated Disintegration of Hexagonal Boron Nitride Nanosheets to Quantum Dots and Its Application in Cells Imaging.

Preparation of quantum dots (QDs) and exfoliation of two-dimensional layered materials have gathered significant attention in recent days. Though, there are number of attempts have been reported, facile and efficient methodology is yet to be explored. Here, we demonstrate supercritical fluid processing approach for rapid and facile synthesis of blue luminescent BN QDs from layered bulk material via in situ exfoliation followed by disintegration. The microscopic and AFM analysis confirmed the few layer BN QDs formation. The strong luminescent behavior of BN QDs is utilized to stain Gram-negative bacterial cells specifically in the presence of Gram-positive bacterial cells.