Abstract: Objective: To prepare tellurium nanosheets(Te NSs) in aqueous phase and study their killing effect on leukemia HL-60 cells in vitro. Methods: Te NSs were prepared by liquid phase exfoliation technique and characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD), transmission electron microscopy(TEM) and atomic force microscopy(AFM). The effect of Te NSs on the proliferation of HL-60 cells was investigated by cell counting kit-8(CCK-8)experiment, inverted microscope, and Calcein/PI fluorescent staining. Results: Te NSs were successfully synthesized. TEM images showed that the lateral dimension of the Te NSs was about 100 nm, and AFM results showed that its thickness was less than 20 nm. Cell experiments showed that Te NSs could induce the apoptosis of HL-60cells, and the lethality rate of cells was as high as 85.26% after 24 h incubation of 0.81 g/L Te NSs with HL-60cells. Conclusion: As a new type of nanomedicine, Te NSs can effectively kill leukemia cells and have good antitumor effect, showing great potential in the in vitro treatment of leukemia.