Zinc oxide hexagonal prisms (ZnO) decorated with nickel nanoparticles (Ni) onto a glassy carbon by a facile two-step electrochemical strategy. The resulting Ni-ZnO modified electrode was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and electrochemical methods. Incorporating the lager surface area of ZnO 3D scaffold and high electrocatalytic activity of Ni, the prepared Ni-ZnO modified electrode possessed strong electrocatalytic ability toward glucose. At the optimum conditions, the calibration curve for glucose determination was linear in the range of 1 mu M to 8.1 mM, a high sensitivity of 82434 A mM(-1) cm(-2) and a low detection limit (S/N = 3) of 028 mu M were obtained. In addition, the proposed sensor was successfully applied to analyze glucose level in human blood serum samples. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.