Some novel kinds of hybrid phosphors were assembled with lanthanum (Tb, Eu, Dy) complexes (with four kinds of terbium complexes is 2,4dihydroxybenzonic acid (DHBA), 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), acetylacetone (AA) and nicotinic acid (Nic), respectively) doped ZnO/PEG particles by co-precipitation approach derived from Zn(CH3COO)(2) (Zn(AC)(2)), NaOH, PEG as precursors at room temperature. The characteristic luminescence spectra for f-f transitions of Tb3+, EU3+, DY3+ were observed. It is worthy to point out that ZnO is the excellent host for lanthanum ions by the assembly of PEG matrices. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.