Exothermic, spontaneous inner-sphere complexation of trivalent lanthanides with N,N,N′,N′,N″,N″-hexaalkyl-substituted nitrilotriacetamides (HRNTAs) into 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium-bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (C 6 mim NTf 2 ) is reported with a predominant presence of ML and ML 2 complexes having complexation constants, β 1 Eu 3.10 ± 0.02 ,β 1 Nd 2.67 ± 0.03 and β 2 Eu 5.22 ± 0.04, β 2 Nd 4.95 ± 0.02, respectively, for the n-butyl-substituted HRNTA (HBNTA); while those for the n-hexyl derivative (HHNTA) are β 1 Eu 4.27 ± 0.03, β 1 Nd 3.71 ± 0.03 and β 2 Eu 7.70 ± 0.03, β 2 Nd 7.18 ± 0.04, respectively. HHNTA shows better complexing ability; whereas the stronger complexation of the Nd 3+ over Eu 3+ is attributed to the lanthanide contraction. Furthermore, the nature of the ionic liquid also influences the extent of complexation with the trend: C 4 mim NTf 2 > C 6 mim NTf 2 > C 8 mim NTf 2 , which follows the order of their dielectric constants. Judd− Ofelt parameters were calculated from photoluminescence data to get an idea about the symmetry of the Eu 3+ complexes. Electrochemical investigations give diffusion coefficient values of 1.17 × 10 −7 and 8.26 × 10 −8 cm 2 /s for the Eu 3+ complexes of HBNTA and HHNTA, respectively. Changes in the spectral characteristics and peak positions are evidenced in the FTIR spectra on the complexation of Eu 3+ with the HRNTA ligands in C 6 mim NTf 2 . Structure optimization for the complexes was performed by DFT computations.