A simple sol-combustion route involving EDTA was employed to prepare nanosized MHfO3:Ce (M = Ba, Sr, or Ca) which were characterized by XRD, TEM and luminescent measurements. The as-prepared powders consist of particles with cube-like morphologies for Ce-doped BaHfO3 and SrHfO3 and uniform polyhedron-like morphology for Ce-doped CaHfO3. The average sizes of crystallites of BaHfO3:Ce, SrHfO3:Ce and CaHfO3:Ce are 48, 34 and 30.4 nm, respectively. Broad emissions for nanocrystals of MHfO3:Ce (M = Ba, Sr, or Ca) resulting from Ce 3, 5d --> 4f transitions were observed under UV excitation, and the Stokes shift for nanocrystals of Ce-doped BaHfO3, SrHfO3 and CaHfO3 are around 9000, 7400 and 7020 cm(-1), respectively. (C) 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd.