•Hierarchical persimmon-shaped CeF3 architectures were gained with template-free hydrothermal method.•N(C4H9)4BF4 can be used both as fluoride source and capping agents.•The CeF3 persimmons were assembled by nanodisks.Employing N(C4H9)4BF4 as fluoride source, large scale multilayer-stacked hierarchical persimmon-shaped CeF3 architectures have been prepared via a facile and template-free hydrothermal route. The crystalline phase and morphology of the as-prepared hierarchical CeF3 microcrystals were investigated by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results revealed that uniform and monodispersed hierarchical nanodisk-assembled persimmon-shaped CeF3 microcrystals with average diameters of 3 μm can be easily synthesized. The effects of synthesis parameters, as well as fluoride source and reaction time were systematically investigated. The room temperature photoluminescence (PL) properties of these different morphological CeF3:Tb3+ were measured.