Fabrication of CuO nanosheets modified Cu electrode and its excellent electrocatalytic performance towards glucose

•CuO nanosheets film was synthesized by a simple method.•The novel CuO NSs electrode was applied to detect glucose in alkaline solution.•The detection limit is 800nM with high sensitivity of 2792.64μAmM−1cm−2.•The sensitivity is more than 5 times of bare Cu electrode. Glucose (Glu) detection is of great importance in the fields of biological, environmental, and clinical analyses. In this study, CuO nanosheets (NSs) electrode prepared by a one-step synthesis route was applied to construct nonenzymatic glucose biosensor. The as-prepared CuO NSs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Electrocatalytic oxidation of the CuO NSs electrode towards glucose was studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry. For the amperometric glucose detection, the low detection limit of 0.8μM (S/N=3) with linear range from 0.8μM to 2200μM can be obtained using the CuO NSs electrode. Under the applied potential of 0.5V vs. Ag/AgCl, the CuO NSs electrode exhibits a high sensitivity of 2792.64μAmM−1cm−2. It is believed that CuO NSs electrode is a promising material for the development of nonenzymatic electrochemical glucose sensors.