A tetrakis(dibenzylmethanido) Eu(III) complex as a ultraviolet (UV) excited phosphor was synthesized, and incorporated with mesoporous silica as core-shell (CS), outer-shell (OS) and intermediate-shell (IS) architectures, using a combination of the self-organization process and the Stober method. Exciting the Eu(III) complex at UV light produced a strong sensitized red-emission from Eu(III) by energy transfer from the ligand. Phosphor-converted light-emitting diodes (pc-LEDs) were fabricated by casting the powdered complex and the incorporated silica nanoparticles onto a 365-nm InGaN chip, and their optical properties and thermal stability were investigated in terms of the chromaticity index and the intensity decay, respectively. The CS silica nanoparticle casted UV-LED exhibited the best perfomence with strong intensity and excellent thermal stability. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.