Synthesis of Oxygen‐Rich Edge Functionalized MoS ₂ and WS ₂ Quantum Dots for Cell Imaging

Abstract In the recent years, inexpensive and high‐yield production of metal dichalcogenides quantum dots (QDs) are essential for practical applications. A versatile and eco‐friendly ball milling method has been developed for synthesis of water‐soluble mono layers with oxygen‐rich edge functionalized MoS 2 and WS 2 QDs. The resultant dichalcogenides QDs have a wide range of solubility in various polar solvents. Our effortless synthesis method leads to very strongly greenish‐blue luminescent QDs. This synthesis technique can create a suitable band gap, i.e., 2.28 eV for MoS 2 and 2.83 eV for WS 2 QDs from commercially available multilayer bulk precursors. Both QDs exhibited two transition energy points. The fluorescence spectrum showed a wide range of emissions due to polydisperse nature of the QDs. The water soluble and photoluminescence active QDs were used for cell imaging purposes.