A phosphor (200) for low voltage applications including a plurality of light-emitting particles (10) being made from a UV-excitable light-emitting phosphor, a diffusion barrier (25) being formed as a film on the light-emitting particles (10), and a coating (30) of an electron-excitable UV-emitting material being formed on the diffusion barrier (25). A method for making a low voltage phosphor including the steps of (i) providing a UV-excitable light-emitting phosphor (ii) forming a diffusion barrier on the UV-excitable light-emitting phosphor via sol-gel techniques (iii) forming, via sol-gel techniques, a film of an electron-excitable UV-emitting material on the diffusion barrier.