Despite extensive efforts to design a white light generating phosphor, single component phosphors which exhibit multi-color emissions are very limited. In this work we report the synthesis of novel single component colortunable strontium cerate (Sr2-xSmxCeO4) phosphor using facile low temperature solution combustion synthesis. A single-composition, color tunable phosphor is produced by doping with different concentrations of Sm3+ (0.0 to 0.11) into the Sr2CeO4 matrix. Chromaticity of Sr2-xSmxCeO4 depends on the Sm3+ concentration. This is because of energy transfer from Sr2CeO4 to Sm3+ determines the emission colors of the phosphors. At low concentration of Sm3+, Commission Internationale d'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates that are very close to white light emission (0.317, 0.303) are observed. However, at higher dopant concentration (x = 0.11 of Sm3+) the compound exhibits red emission (0.407, 0.343). Hence, a single host multi-color emitting phosphor is realized by doping and energy transfer. Thermoluminescence studies are carried out for Sr2CeO4:Sm3+ phosphor using gamma-irradiation in the dose range of 0.5 to 5 kGy. The kinetic parameters, namely activation energy (E), frequency factor (s) and order of kinetics (b) were estimated by Chen's glow peak shape method and are discussed in detail for their possible usage in dosimetry. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.