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A general nonaqueous route has been applied for the preparation of rare-earth ordered nanocrystalline hybrid structures. In a simple one-pot reaction process, Y3and Gd3isopropoxides were reacted in an autoclave with 4-biphenylmethanol at 275 °C. This approach leads to crystalline rare-earth oxide thin layers (~0.6 nm) regularly separated from each other by organic layers of biphenolate molecules. The optical properties of these hybrid materials doped with Eu3and Nd3, which are optical active lanthanides ions emitting in the red and near infrared, respectively, are presented. They show significant advantages compared to standard phosphors, such as higher radiance and luminance values, the possibility to tune the emission chromaticity by varying the excitation wavelength, and a much larger excitation range (250-350 nm and 300-500 nm for the Eu3and Nd3doped nanohybrids, respectively) shifted toward the red.

A general nonaqueous route has been applied for the preparation of lanthanide ordered nanocrystalline hybrid structures. In a simple one-pot reaction process, Ln(III) isopropoxides (Ln Gd, Sm, Nd) were dissolved in benzyl alcohol and reacted in an autoclave between 250 and 300 °C. This approach leads to crystalline lanthanide oxide layers regularly separated from each other by organic layers of intercalated benzoate molecules. They display good thermal stability for temperature up to 400 °C. The gadolinium-based nanohybrids showed outstanding optical emission properties when doped with terbium(III) and europium(III).