This paper reports on the dose response and fading effect of the blue thermoluminescence (TL) emission of lithium-rich aluminosilicates (virgilite-petalite mixture) synthesized by sol-gel method and characterised by means of X-ray diffraction. This material could be potentially valid for dose assessment since: (i) it is sensitive to ionising radiation, (ii) the dose dependence in the range of 0.5-5 Gy exhibits an acceptable linearity and (iii) the stability of the TL signal, after four months of storage, shows an initial rapid decay (ca.55%) maintaining similar relative intensities from 40 to 50 days onwards. The structure of the TL emission has been analysed by means of a computerized glow curve fitting method based on general order kinetics. The calculation of the trapping parameters of each of the four glow peaks appearing at 80, 95, 110 and 125 degrees C (i.e. trap depth in eV, E; frequency factor in s(-1), s, and the order of kinetics, b) indicates that cannot be fitted to a typical first or second order kinetics; the estimated b values are between 1.1 and 1.8. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.