Abstract. Seven lanthanide diphosphonates, [H 3 N(CH 2 ) 4 NH 3 ]Ln[hedpH][hedpH 2 ] (Ln = La, Pr, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Er; hedp = 1-hydroxyethylidenediphosphonate) have been synthesized with 1,4-diaminobutane as the template. The structures were obtained starting from the known X-ray single crystal model of lanthanum compound, with the X-ray powder diffraction data for these seven compounds. H-atoms were introduced using geometrical considerations. Rietveld fits of the experimental diffractograms confirm the isostructurality of all compounds in the series, and show the different behaviour between the two distances M-M existing in the structures.