Here, we report the direct hydrothermal synthesis of 1D-based Zn2GeO4:Mn2+ persistent luminescent nanobelts (ZGO:Mn PLNBs). The ZGO:Mn PLNBs exhibit rapid growth rate, and nanobelts can be obtained after 30 min of hydrothermal treatment. The persistent luminescence performance can be fine-turned upon prolonging the hydrothermal time. Furthermore, the doping ratio of Mn2+ exhibits influence on the persistent luminescence properties of ZGO:Mn PLNBs, and 2% doping of Mn2+ shows superior persistent luminescence with decay time of longer than 20 min. The developed 1D-based ZGO:Mn PLNBs can be simply prepared with the hydrothermal method and show tunable morphology and persistent luminescence. We believe that this solid-state-reaction-free chemical approach avoids the current key drawback in regard to PLNMs development, and thus will promote the broad use of these unique nanostructured PLNMs in developing optical device for imaging. (C) 2018 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.