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1. Boron nitride nanosheets, quantum dots, and dots: Synthesis, properties, and biomedical applications

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0255590  

   Dubey, Raksha; Cowles, Matthew; Salimi, Zohreh; Liu, Xiuling; Oakley, Rodney; Yapici, Nazmiye; Uddin, Join; Zhang, Dongyan; Yap, Yoke_Khin (April 2025, APL Materials)

   This review examines three aspects of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) nanomaterials: properties, synthesis methods, and biomedical applications. We focus the scope of review on three types of h-BN nanostructures: boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs, few-layered h-BN, larger than ∼100 nm in lateral dimensions), boron nitride quantum dots (BN QDs, smaller than ∼10 nm in all dimensions, with inherent excitation-dependent fluorescence), and boron nitride dots (BN dots, smaller than ∼10 nm in all dimensions, wide bandgap without noise fluorescence). The synthesis methods of BNNSs, BN QDs, and BN dots are summarized in top-down and bottom-up approaches. Future synthesis research should focus on the scalability and the quality of the products, which are essential for reproducible applications. Regarding biomedical applications, BNNSs were used as nanocarriers for drug delivery, mechanical reinforcements (bone tissue engineering), and antibacterial applications. BN QDs are still limited for non-specific bioimaging applications. BN dots are used for the small dimension to construct high-brightness probes (HBPs) for gene sequence detections inside cells. To differentiate from other two-dimensional materials, future applications should focus on using the unique properties of BN nanostructures, such as piezoelectricity, boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT), and their electrically insulating and optically transparent nature. Examples would be combining BNCT and chemo drug delivery using BNNSs, and using BN dots to form HBPs with enhanced fluorescence by preventing fluorescence quenching using electrically insulating BN dots. 

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2. Fluorescent surfactants from common dyes – Rhodamine B and Eosin Y

   https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0219  

   Smith McWilliams, Ashleigh D.; Ergülen, Selin; Ogle, Meredith M.; de los Reyes, Carlos A.; Pasquali, Matteo; Martí, Angel A. (July 2019, Pure and Applied Chemistry)

   Abstract Eight fluorescent surfactants were synthesized by attaching aliphatic chains of 6, 10, 12, or 16 carbons to the fluorescent dyes Rhodamine B and Eosin Y. The obtained critical micelle concentrations (CMC) demonstrate an increasing CMC with decreasing aliphatic chain length, which is a typical behavior for surfactants. Additionally, fluorescence quantum yield experiments show a decrease in quantum yield with increasing aliphatic chain length, suggesting that the tails can interact with the dye, influencing its excited state. Finally, applications for the fluorescent surfactants were demonstrated; as a cellular stain in Panc-1 cells and as a dispersion and imaging tool for carbon and boron nitride nanotubes. These surfactants could provide a useful tool for a wide array of potential applications, from textile dyes to fluorescence imaging. 

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3. Progress in Electronic, Energy, Biomedical and Environmental Applications of Boron Nitride and MoS2 Nanostructures

   https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15030349  

   Uddin, Join; Dubey, Raksha; Balasubramaniam, Vinaayak Sivam; Kabel, Jeff; Khare, Vedika; Salimi, Zohreh; Sharma, Sambhawana; Zhang, Dongyan; Yap, Yoke Khin (March 2024, Micromachines)

   In this review, we examine recent progress using boron nitride (BN) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanostructures for electronic, energy, biomedical, and environmental applications. The scope of coverage includes zero-, one-, and two-dimensional nanostructures such as BN nanosheets, BN nanotubes, BN quantum dots, MoS2 nanosheets, and MoS2 quantum dots. These materials have sizable bandgaps, differentiating them from other metallic nanostructures or small-bandgap materials. We observed two interesting trends: (1) an increase in applications that use heterogeneous materials by combining BN and MoS2 nanostructures with other nanomaterials, and (2) strong research interest in environmental applications. Last, we encourage researchers to study how to remove nanomaterials from air, soil, and water contaminated with nanomaterials. As nanotechnology proceeds into various applications, environmental contamination is inevitable and must be addressed. Otherwise, nanomaterials will go into our food chain much like microplastics. 

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4. Coupling of deterministically activated quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride to plasmonic surface lattice resonances

   https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2019-0136  

   Proscia, Nicholas V.; Collison, Robert J.; Meriles, Carlos A.; Menon, Vinod M. (September 2019, Nanophotonics)

   Abstract The cooperative phenomena stemming from the radiation field-mediated coupling between individual quantum emitters are presently attracting broad interest for applications related to on-chip photonic quantum memories and long-range entanglement. Common to these applications is the generation of electro-magnetic modes over macroscopic distances. Much research, however, is still needed before such systems can be deployed in the form of practical devices, starting with the investigation of alternate physical platforms. Quantum emitters in two-dimensional (2D) systems provide an intriguing route because these materials can be adapted to arbitrarily shaped substrates to form hybrid systems wherein emitters are near-field-coupled to suitable optical modes. Here, we report a scalable coupling method allowing color center ensembles in a van der Waals material (hexagonal boron nitride) to couple to a delocalized high-quality plasmonic surface lattice resonance. This type of architecture is promising for photonic applications, especially given the ability of the hexagonal boron nitride emitters to operate as single-photon sources at room temperature. 

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5. A universal high-resolution micro-patterning technique for solution-processed materials

   https://doi.org/10.37188/lam.2025.015  

   Velpugonda, John Leo; Varnakavi, Naresh; Yerich, Matthew; Lin, Lih Y (March 2025, Light: Advanced Manufacturing)

   A universal method of micro-patterning thin quantum dot films is highly desired by industry to enable integration of quantum dot materials with optoelectronic devices. Many of the methods reported so far, including specially engineered photoresist or ink-jet printing, are either of poor yield, resolution limited, difficult to scale for mass production, overly expensive or sacrifice some optical quality of the quantum dots. In our previous work, we presented a dry photolithographic lift-off method for pixelization of solution-processed materials and demonstrated its application in patterning perovskite quantum dot pixels, 10 µm in diameter, to construct a static micro-display. In this report, we present further development of this method, and demonstrate high-resolution patterning (~1 µm diameter), full-scale processing on 100 mm wafer, and multi-color integration of two different varieties of quantum dots. Perovskite and cadmium-selenide quantum dots were adopted for the experimentation, but the method can be applied to other types of solution-processed materials. We also show the viability of this method for constructing high-resolution micro-arrays of quantum dot color-convertors by fabricating patterned films directly on top of a blue gallium-nitride LED substrate. The green perovskite quantum dots used for fabrication are synthesized and prepared by our research group via room temperature ligand-assisted reprecipitation method, and these synthesized quantum dots have a photoluminescent quantum yield of 93.6% and full-width half-maximum emission linewidth less than 20 nm. Our results demonstrate the viability of this method for use in scalable manufacturing of high-resolution micro-displays. 

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