“…The most familiar rare-earth precursor compounds are hexagonal Ln(OH) 3 [18][19][20] and monoclinic Ln 4 O(OH) 9 NO 3 [19,20,24] (Ln¼rare earth ions). Recently, some new rare-earth compounds including anion-exchangeable layered hydroxides Ln 2 (OH) 5 (A mÀ ) 1/m Á nH 2 O (Ln¼La, Pr, Nd, Sm-Tm, and Y, A¼intercalated anions) [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42], layered hydroxides Yb 2 (OH) 5 NO 3 Á 2H 2 O and Yb 2 (OH) 5 NO 3 Á H 2 O with coordinated NO 3 À accommodated in the gallery of hydroxide layers [43], anion-exchangeable oxy-hydroxide Yb 3 O(OH) 6 Cl Á 2H 2 O with one-dimensional channels containing uncoordinated Cl À [44], and layered hydroxides Ln 2 (OH) 4 SO 4 Á 2H 2 O pillared by sulfate ions [45,46] are reported, and the crystal structures are systematically investigated. The nitrate/NH 4 OH reaction system is one of the simplest for Y 2 O 3 :Eu 3 þ synthesis.…”