Energy transfer and color-tunable emission in trivalent terbium/europium doped multi-component borosilicate glasses for white light-emitting diodes under ultraviolet excitation

•Tb3+/Eu3+ co-doped multi-component borosilicate glasses prepared by melt-quench technique.•ET from Tb3+to Eu3+is realized from the decrease of Tb3+ PL and lifetimes in the presence of Eu3+.•ET from Tb3+→Eu3+ is verified by overlap of PL (Tb3+) and PLE (Eu3+) spectra, PLE, PL, and lifetimes.•Dexter and I-H models confirms that the NRET from Tb3+ to Eu3+ is governed by dipole-dipole interaction.•CIE color coordinates shifted from green to red via yellow as function of Eu3+ content.