• A standalone-like smart device that can remotely track the variation of air pollutants in a power-saving way is created;

• Metal–organic framework-derived hollow polyhedral ZnO was successfully synthesized, allowing the created smart device to be highly selective and to sensitively track the variation of NO₂ concentration;

• A novel photoluminescence-enhanced Li-Fi telecommunication technique is proposed, offering the created smart device with the capability of long distance wireless communication.

Remote tracking the variation of air quality in an effective way will be highly helpful to decrease the health risk of human short- and long-term exposures to air pollution. However, high power consumption and poor sensing performance remain the concerned issues, thereby limiting the scale-up in deploying air quality tracking networks. Herein, we report a standalone-like smart device that can remotely track the variation of air pollutants in a power-saving way. Brevity, the created smart device demonstrated satisfactory selectivity (against six kinds of representative exhaust gases or air pollutants), desirable response magnitude (164–100 ppm), and acceptable response/recovery rate (52.0/50.5 s), as well as linear response relationship to NO₂. After aging for 2 weeks, the created device exhibited relatively stable sensing performance more than 3 months. Moreover, a photoluminescence-enhanced light fidelity (Li-Fi) telecommunication technique is proposed and the Li-Fi communication distance is significantly extended. Conclusively, our reported standalone-like smart device would sever as a powerful sensing platform to construct high-performance and low-power consumption air quality wireless sensor networks and to prevent air pollutant-induced diseases via a more effective and low-cost approach.

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  打造独立式智能设备，可远程省电追踪空气污染物变化；

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  成功合成了金属有机骨架衍生的空心多面体ZnO，使所创建的智能器件具有高选择性并能灵敏地跟踪NO ₂浓度的变化；

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  提出了一种新型光致发光增强Li-Fi通信技术，为所创建的智能设备提供了长距离无线通信的能力。

有效地远程跟踪空气质量的变化对于降低人类短期和长期暴露于空气污染的健康风险非常有帮助。然而，高功耗和较差的传感性能仍然是人们关注的问题，从而限制了空气质量跟踪网络的大规模部署。在此，我们报告了一种类似独立的智能设备，可以以节能的方式远程跟踪空气污染物的变化。简而言之，所创建的智能设备表现出令人满意的选择性（针对六种代表性废气或空气污染物）、理想的响应幅度（164-100 ppm）、可接受的响应/回收率（52.0/50.5 s）以及线性响应与NO ₂的关系。老化2周后，所创建的器件在3个多月内表现出相对稳定的传感性能。此外，还提出了光致发光增强光保真（Li-Fi）通信技术，显着延长了Li-Fi通信距离。总之，我们报道的独立智能设备将作为一个强大的传感平台来构建高性能和低功耗的空气质量无线传感器网络，并通过更有效和低成本的方法预防空气污染物引起的疾病。