Novel luminescent lanthanide complexes assembling alumina/titania/silica hybrids through 2-phenylmalonic acid linkage

•The hybrids are prepared though the hydrolysis and condensation process.•The obtained materials are amorphous and heat stabilized.•The hybrids containing Eu3 + and Tb3 + show the typical red and green emissions.

In this paper, a series of novel inorganic/organic rare earth (europium, terbium) hybrid materials through 2-phenylmalonic acid linkage were synthesized by the sol–gel process. The micro-structure and the luminescent properties of the complicated hybrids were studied in detail by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, wide angle x-ray diffraction, themogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscope, and fluorescence spectra. The above research results indicate that the hybrids possess high thermal-stability, amorphous structure features and especially favorable luminescent performances such as long luminescent decay lifetime, and high quantum yield.