A detailed study of the ability of pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid (1) and its 4-mono-and 3,4,5-trisubstituted analogues to sensitize emission from Pr 3+ , Nd 3+ , Gd 3+ , Dy 3+ and Er 3+ is presented. Sensitization of Ln 3+ emission was demonstrated via the ligands in all complexes, excluding Gd 3+ , with emission covering the spectral range from 500 nm to 1850 nm obtained with variation of the Ln 3+ ion. From the study of the ligand-based photoluminescence obtained from Gd 3+ -complexes, and the relative ligand and Ln 3+ emission obtained from the other complexes, the singlet and triplet state energies of complexes of (1) are estimated to be at 3.1 eV and 2.6 eV respectively whilst for the 3,5-dibromo-substituted complexes (4) they are at 2.9 eV and 2.3 eV. Hypersensitivity of the Er 3+ 4 I15/2 → 2 H11/2 and 4 I15/2 → 4 G11/2 intraatomic transitions is also observed in the 4-chloro-substituted (3) complex. Enhanced sensitization of Nd 3+ (ca. 5-fold) and Er 3+ (ca. 2-fold) near-infrared emission is demonstrated for complexes of (3) and ( 4) respectively in comparison with those of (1).