Last years, an explosive growth of the number of researches devoted to the creation and design of the new crystalline nanocomposite materials has been observed. For example, composite nanoparticles (core–shell structured or hollow, raspberry-like and others), nanopowders and crystalline nanostructures attract considerable attention due to the ability to adjust their properties in a wide range depending on the structure, composition and geometrical proportions. We propose mono-sized polycrystalline Y₂O₃ nano- and submicrospheres as matrix material for ZnO nanocrystals preparation. Y₂O₃ as well as other rare-earth oxides with the well-defined spherical morphology were successfully obtained by urea-based homogeneous precipitation (UBHP) by taking advantages of high control of the sizes (40-400 nm) and monodispersity of the particles as well as economic efficiency.

Highly UV luminescent ZnO nanocrystals were obtained in the voids of mesoporous Y₂O₃ spherical particles of different diameters by means of infiltration technique with subsequent thermolysis (T= 600 ºC). The main idea is the application of mesoporous UBHP–prepared Y₂O₃ spheres with the porosity till 50% as a matrix with high chemical and thermal stability for preparation of isolated ZnO nanocrystals. Nanostructure, morphology and composition of obtained composite particles were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), thermal analysis (DTA-TG), BET, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. The ZnO nanophase were found to begin crystallization in the Y₂O₃ matrixes at 300 °C and its crystalline structure was improved with the increase of annealing temperature till 900°C without anysolid-phase reactions between Y₂O₃ and ZnO. Room-temperature photoluminescence spectra of Y₂O₃-ZnO composite particles show intensive UV emission at 340 nm with almost absence impurity visible luminescence.It has been shown that the position of UV luminescence of the composites and its intensity strongly depends on the annealing temperature and the spheres diameter. The possible reasons of such phenomenon were also discussed.

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