An efficient red-emitting europium(III) organic complex Eu(ECTFBD)(3)phen was designed and synthesized, where ECTFBD was 1-(9-ethyl-9H-carbazol-3-yl)-4,4,4-trifluorobutane-1,3-dione and phen was 1,10-phenanthroline. Eu(ECTFBD)(3)phen exhibits a high thermal stability and excellent photoluminescence properties. The photoluminescence mechanism of the complex was proposed as a ligand-sensitized luminescence process (antenna effect). A bright red light-emitting diode (LED) was fabricated by coating the complex phosphor onto an similar to 395 nm-emitting InGaN chip, whose CIE chromaticity coordinates (x=0.65, y=0.320) are close to the National Television Standard Committee standard values for red. All the results indicate that Eu(ECTFBD)(3)phen is a good candidate as a red component in the fabrication of white LEDs with a high color-rendering index.