The impact on the morphology nanoceramic materials generated from group 4 metal alkoxides ([M(OR)(4)]) and the same precursors modified by 6,6'-(((2-hydroxyethyl)azanediyl)bis(methylene))bis(2,4-di-tert-butylphenol) (referred to as H-3-AM-DBP2 (1)) was explored. The products isolated from the 1:1 stoichiometric reaction of a series of [M(OR)(4)] where M = Ti, Zr, or Hf; OR = OCH(CH3)(2) (OPri); OC(CH3)(3) (OBut); OCH2C(CH3)(3) (ONep) with H-3 AM-DBP2 proved, by single crystal X-ray diffraction, to be (ONep)Ti-(k(4) (O,O',O '',N)-AM-DBP2)] (2), (OR)M(mu(O)-k(3) (O',O '',N)-AMDBP(2))AM- =Zr: OR = OPri, 3.tol: Obu(t), 4.tol; ONep, 5.tol; M = Hf: OR = OBut, 6-tol; ONep, 7-tol]. The product from each system led to a tetradentate AM-DBP2 ligand and retention of a parent alkoxide ligand. For the monomeric Ti derivative (2), the metal was solved in a trigonal bipyramidal geometry, whereas for the Zr (3-5) and Hf (6, 7) derivatives a symmetric dinuclear complex was formed where the ethoxide moiety of the AM-DBP2 ligand bridges to the other metal center, generating an octahedral geometry. High quality density functional theory level gasphase electronic structure calculations on compounds 2-7 using Gaussian 09 were used for meaningful time dependent density functional theory calculations in the interpretation of the UV-vis absorbance spectral data on 2-7. Nanoparticles generated from the solvothermal treatment of the ONep/AM-DBP2 modified compounds (2, 5, 7) in comparison to their parent [M(ONep)(4)] were larger and had improved regularity and dispersion of the final ceramic nanomaterials.