• Eu/Ce co-doping of MOF-derived ZnO significantly enhances n-butanol sensing performance under UV activation at room temperature.
• The optimized 0.03 wt% Eu and 0.04 wt% Ce co-doped ZnO sensor exhibits a response of 611 to 100 ppm n-butanol, 15.28 times higher than pristine MOF-ZnO.
• The sensor shows rapid response/recovery times (15 s/28 s) and excellent selectivity, making it suitable for practical VOC detection.
• The enhanced sensing performance is attributed to increased specific surface area and enriched oxygen vacancies from Eu/Ce doping.