Display omitted •A highly efficient CTL sensor for acetone vapor coupled with UIO-66 as the preconcentrator was established.•A simple and low-cost home-made adsorption apparatus with UIO-66 was fabricated.•The proposed CTL sensing platform demonstrated advantages of high sensitivity, selectivity, and speediness. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) showed a significant sorption potential in the gas capture and preconcentration during recent years because of its super porosity. Herein, we fabricated a simple and inexpensive home-made adsorption apparatus based on UIO-66 as the preconcentrator, which was firstly coupled with a rapid cataluminescence (CTL) sensor to determine acetone vapor. The CTL emission was enhanced by 25 times after the preconcentration of UIO-66, indicating the UIO-66 preconcentrator could efficiently ameliorate sensitivity. As for the adsorption mechanism of UIO-66 for acetone molecules, we deduced that acetone molecules were preferentially located on the Zr clusters with high hydrophilicity. The proposed CTL sensor in combine with UIO-66 adsorption granted a detection limit of acetone down to 2.79 ppm, and demonstrated good selectivity, simplicity, rapidity, and recyclability. This study provides appealing perspectives of UIO-66 as the preconcentrator for the improvement of analytical performance, and the prospect of a miniaturized portable acetone sensor.