Abstract Although aluminate phosphors have attracted great interest for applications in lamps, cathode ray tubes and plasma display panels, there still remain issues affecting operational parameters such as luminescence efficiency, stability against temperature, high color purity and perfect decay time. In addition, issues involving important aspects of the monoclinic↔hexagonal phase transition temperature still exist. In this work, SrAl x O y :Eu 2+ ,Dy 3+ phosphor powders were prepared by the sol–gel method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) has shown that both crystallinity and crystallite sizes increased as the temperature increased. Both SrAl 2 O 4 and Sr 2 Al 3 O 6 phases were observed. Photoluminescence (PL) characterization shows temperature-dependence, which indicates emission at low and high annealing temperatures originating from Eu 2+ and Eu 3+ ions. Thermoluminescence glow and decay measurements provided useful insight on the influence of traps on luminescence behavior. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric studies (TGA) on composites of the phosphor in low density polyethylene (LDPE) demonstrated the varied influence of annealing temperature on some luminescence and thermal properties.