Exploring novel visible light responsive photocatalysts is one of greatly significant issues from the viewpoint of using solar energy. Here we report the yellow-orange emitting alpha-Si3N4-doped Lu3Al5O12:Ce3+ (Lu3Al5-xSixO12-xNx: Ce3+) phosphors as a noble-metal-free co-catalyst for enhanced visible light photo catalytic activity of ZnO. The results show that ZnO-Lu3Al5-xSixO12-xNx:Ce3+ hybrid photocatalysts using a fast microwave-assisted approach exhibits a 91% methylene blue (MB) degradation under visible light irradiation at 240 min, which evidence the synergistic effect of ZnO and Lu3Al5-xSixO12-xNx:Ce3+ that suppress the rate of charge recombination and increase the self-sensitized degradation of MB. ZnO-down conversion phosphors can be envisaged as potential candidate in environmental engineering and solar energy applications. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.