We obtained a single phase BLS:Eu2+, Ce3+, Mn2+ phosphor by solid-state reactions. Eu2+, Ce3+, and Mn2+ gives rise to the blue, green, and red emission, respectively. The Mn2+ red emission can be effectively enhanced via energy transfers from both Eu2+ and Ce3+. Thus a tunable full color emission from 410 to 750 nm was realized in this single phosphor. The Eu2+ -> Mn2+ energy transfer mechanism was investigated by the fluorescence decay curves. This single phosphor exhibits an efficient excitation band covering from 390 to 410 nm, which matches well with the emission light of the efficient NUV chips. The optimized BLS:Eu2+, Ce3+, Mn2+ phosphor shows a high quantum efficient of similar to 62% and a good color stability. When this single phosphor was combined with a 395 nm NUV-chip, an ideal white LED with a high color render index (CRI) of 85 and a correlated color temperature (CCT) of 6300 K was obtained. This demonstrates the promising application of the BLS:Eu2+, Ce3+, Mn2+ single phosphor for the NUV-based white LEDs. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.