Mixed hydrothermal system H2O-OA (EDA)-O-A(LO-A) is developed to synthesize barium rare earth fluorides nanocrystals (OA = oleylamine, EDA = ethylenediamine, O-A = oleic acid and LO-A = linoleic acid). They are presented as BaREF5 (RE = Ce, Pr, Nd, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Y, Tm, Lu) and Ba2REF7 (RE = La, Sm, Ho, Er, Yb). The influence of reaction parameters (rare earth species, hydrothermal system and temperature) is checked on the phase and shape evolution of the fluoride nanocrystals. It is found that reaction time and temperature of these nanocrystals using EDA (180 degrees C, 6 h) is lower than those of them using OA (220 degrees C, 10 h). The photoluminescence properties of these fluorides activated by some rare earth ions (Nd3+, Eu3+, Tb3+) are studied, and especially up-conversion luminescence of the four fluoride nanocrystal systems (Ba2LaF7:Yb, Tm(Er), Ba2REF7:Yb, Tm(Er) (RE = Gd, Y, Lu)) is observed. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.