Uniform rice-like yttrium fluoride submicroparticles have been facilely synthesized by solid state reaction with only tetrabutyl ammonium fluoride (TBAF) and yttrium nitrate In the reactions, TBAF acts as a fluorine source, ionic liquids (ILs) solvent and templates.The crystal phase and morphology of the as-prepared YF3 crystals were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) respectively.Results revealed that the highly uniform submicroparticles obtained were about 250 nm in lengths and 150 nm in widths.This method was also employed to the preparation of Eu-doped and Tb-doped YF3.The photoluminescentproperties of the synthesized materials were also examined.