In this work, Y O phosphors were synthesized utilizing facile sol-gel, combustion and solid-state techniques. It is shown that the employed synthesis processes provide a variety of particle sizes from nano to sub-micron sizes. To synthesize YSO:Ce via sol-gel method, tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) was used as the precursor of SiO . The crystal structure, microstructure and optical behaviors of the synthesized nanostructured phosphors were studied using X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform-infrared spectrometer and photoluminescence analyses. Fourier Transform-Infrared analysis (FT-IR) showed that the hydrolysis of TEOS gives rise to the formation of Si-O-Si asymmetric stretching vibrations. It was found that the consumption of specific amounts of TEOS results in the formation of Y SiO /Y Si O phosphors with the different crystal structures. Upon the excitation of phosphors under 354 nm, there are two strong emission peaks at 395.6 and 424.1 nm, attributed to 5d - F and 5d - F electronic transitions of Ce . It was concluded that the most intense photoluminescence characteristics are belong to the combination of Y (SiO ) O, Y Si O and Y SiO phosphors.