Eu3+ activated La4Ti9O24 phosphors were prepared by firing precursors from sol-gel method. Under the excitation of 465 nm light, the phosphor with optimized concentration at 3% shows strong red light emission peaked at 613 nm with high color purity owing to D-5(0) -> F-7(2) emission of Eu3+. When adequate amount of either Si4+ or Bi3+ is incorporated in La4Ti9O24 host, the photoluminescence intensity of as-prepared La4Ti9O24:Eu3+ phosphor can be enhanced by 12% and 19.4%, respectively. As the (La0.97Eu0.03)(4)Ti9O24 is pumped with blue-light, high purity red emission with chromaticity coordinates (0.6380, 0.3616) is achieved at the optimized condition. This phosphor might be applied in the solid-state white light emission devices based on blue light-emitting diodes. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.