Novel phosphors CaB6O10:RE3+ (RE= Ce, Tb, Dy, Eu) were successfully developed by solid-state reaction method. Spectroscopic properties of CaB6O10:RE3+ (RE= Ce, Tb, Dy, Eu) under ultraviolet (UV) light excitation were investigated. Under UV excitation, CaB6O10:Ce-3., CaB6O10:Tb3+, CaB6O10:Dy-3. phosphors show strong blue, green and yellowish-white emission, respectively. The CaB6O10:Eu3+ phosphor shows a bright red emission, and the integral emission intensity of CaB6O10:0.2Eu(3+) is 4.31 times of the Y2O3:Eu3+ under 392 nm excitation. In addition, CaB6O10: 0.2Eu(3+) has a better red color purity with CIE (0.658, 0.342) and similar thermostability with Y2O3:Eu3+ under UV excitation. These results show that CaB6O10:RE3 could be promising phosphors for light emitting diodes. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.