2-Carboxycinnamic acid (ccnH 2 ) and the isomeric 1,2-and 1,3-phenylenedioxydiacetic acids (1,2-and 1,3-pddaH 2 ) have been used to synthesize eight uranyl ion complexes under solvo-hydrothermal conditions. In the four complexes 4), the ccn 2− dianion retains a nearly planar geometry, which favors the formation of the centrosymmetric [UO 2 (ccn)] 2 dimeric unit. Additional terminal ligands, either neutral (bipy = 2,2′-bipyridine) or anionic (nitrate, dibf − = 1,3-dihydro-3-oxo-1-isobenzofuranacetate, and formate, the two latter formed in situ), complete the uranyl coordination sphere, leading in all cases to discrete, dinuclear species. Sodium(I) bonding to the carboxylate/ether O 4 site of the 1,2-pdda 2− dianion in the two complexes [UO 2 Na(1,2-pdda)(OH)] ( 5) and [(UO 2 ) 2 Na 2 (1,2pdda) 2 (C 2 O 4 )] (6) results in this ligand being planar. Further lateral coordination to uranyl and sodium bonding to a uranyl oxo group allow formation of heterometallic diperiodic networks containing monoperiodic uranyl-only subunits. In the absence of Na + cations, 1,2-pdda 2− adopts a conformation in which one carboxylate group is tilted out of the ligand plane in [UO 2 (1,2-pdda) 2 Ni(cyclam)] ( 7) and diaxial carboxylato bonding to nickel(II) unites uranyl-only monoperiodic subunits into a diperiodic network. The 1,3-pdda 2− ligand in [UO 2 (1,3-pdda)(H 2 O)] ( 8) is also nonplanar with one tilted carboxylate group, and the bridging bidentate nature of both carboxylate groups allows formation of a triperiodic framework in which both metal and ligand are four-coordinated nodes. While the emission spectra of complexes 1 and 5 display the vibronic progression considered typical of uranyl ion, those of complexes 2, 4, and 8 show broad emission bands which in the case of complex 4 completely replace the uranyl emission and which appear to be ligand-centered. The low energy of these broad bands can be rationalized in terms of the close association of certain ligand pairs within the structures.