Over the past few decades, the sphere of applied science has witnessed soaring demand in developing high performance, novel and sustainable materials due to ever-increasing population coupled with need for alternative-green-energy resources. Inevitably, sulfur research expands through the breadth of materials sciences including sustainable use of the by-products obtained from petroleum industry, preparation of biocompatible materials, and constructing energy harvesting devices, indispensable to our everyday lives. Congruous with popular heavy-metal free elemental quantum dots such as the carbon, silicon and phosphorus, emergence of sulfur quantum dots (SQDs) has drawn substantial attention due to their bright luminescence, infrequent to other sulfur allotropes. In this review article, we focus some of the pioneering advances on synthesis and characterizations of luminescent sulfur nanodots and their potential applications in bioimaging, fabrication of light emitting devices, sensing and catalysis. Finally, critical challenges along with future perspectives corresponding to this newly discovered research area have been discussed.

在过去的几十年里，由于人口不断增加以及对替代绿色能源的需求，应用科学领域对开发高性能、新型和可持续材料的需求激增。不可避免地，硫研究通过材料科学的广度扩展，包括可持续利用从石油工业中获得的副产品、生物相容性材料的制备以及构建我们日常生活中不可或缺的能量收集装置。与流行的无重金属元素量子点如碳、硅和磷一样，硫量子点 (SQD) 的出现因其明亮的发光而引起了广泛关注，而其他硫同素异形体很少见。在这篇评论文章中，我们重点关注发光硫纳米点的合成和表征及其在生物成像、发光器件制造、传感和催化方面的潜在应用方面的一些开创性进展。最后，讨论了与这个新发现的研究领域相对应的关键挑战和未来前景。