Red phosphors of Zn-doped CaTiO3:Eu3+ have been synthesized by the sol-gel method. XRD, SEM and PL analyses were used to characterize the structure, morphology and luminous performance of the samples. The results show that the emission intensity can be greatly enhanced by the incorporation of Zn2+ into the CaTiO3:Eu3+, attributing that Zn not only compensates positive charge defects in the lattice sites, but also plays a role of flux, which could enhance the crystallite size of the phosphors. Furthermore, the phosphors have more favorable morphology and better thermal stability, implying the potential to be a promising red phosphor in white LED. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.