Copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) encapsulated by polymeric stabilizer of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) (noted as PVPCuNPs) were simply prepared and used to construct an enzymeless glucose sensor on a solid substrate. Sensing and assay performance of the CuNPs-based sensor to glucose were evaluated in detail. Cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperometry (I -t) and flow injection amperometry (FIA) revealed a high sensitivity, excellent stability, and good reproducibility in the glucose determination at þ 0.45 V, which was 200 mV more negative than those in former reports. A detection limit as low as 1.0 Â 10 À8 M (signal-to-noise ¼ 3) and a linear range of 1.0 Â 10 À7 M to 5.0 Â 10 À3 M were obtained in this study.