Vertically aligned copper oxide (CuO) nanowires were synthesized by directly heating copper foil on a hotplate under ambient conditions. The as-grown CuO nanowires film is mechanically stable and was facilely attached to a glassy carbon (GC) electrode, offering an excellent electrochemical sensing platform. The CuO nanowires electrode shows excellent electrocatalytic response to H 2 O 2 with significantly lower overpotentials for its oxidation and reduction and also exhibits a fast response and high sensitivity for the amperometric detection of H 2 O 2 . The novel vertically aligned CuO nanowires electrode is readily applicable to other analytes and has great potential applications in the electrochemical detection.Keywords: CuO, Nanowires, Reduction, Oxidation, Hydrogen peroxide DOI: 10.1002/elan.200804299 Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), a strong oxidant, has been widely used in many fields, including food production [1 -3], pulp and paper bleaching [4,5], sterilization [6], the oxidation of organic substances [7 -9], liquid-based fuel cells [10 -14], and clinical applications [15,16]. H 2 O 2 is also readily present in a variety of commercial products such as cosmetic and pharmaceutical products [17]. Furthermore, as a product of enzymatic reactions catalyzed by a large number of oxidases, H 2 O 2 concentration can be correlated to the concentration of target substrates, thus is practically important in the field of biosensor development [18 -22]. Consequently, there are growing interests to study the oxidation and reduction of H 2 O 2 at different electrode surfaces, and the detection and quantification of H 2 O 2 still remains a significant endeavor in various fields.In the past decades, many analytical methods, such as titration [23], spectrophotometric [24,25], fluorometric [26,27], chemiluminescence [28,29], and chromatographic [30 -32] techniques have been developed for the detection and quantification of H 2 O 2 . Although sensitive and reliable, these methods are either time-consuming or expensive, and/ or require skilled personnel, therefore they are unsuitable for rapid and cost-effective determination of H 2 O 2 . Thus, electrochemical methods have emerged as a preferable alternative, owing to their relatively low cost, efficiency, high sensitivity, and ease of operation [33 -41]. With the development of nanotechnology, new efforts have been emphasized on using novel nanomaterials to reduce the overpotentials for H 2 O 2 oxidation and reduction and minimize the interference. CuO, a p-type semiconductor with a narrow band gap of 1.2 eV, is promising in such application because CuO nanostructures have unique advantages including the high specific surface area, chemical stability, electrochemical activity, and high electron communication features. Recently CuO nanoparticles were immobilized on a Nafion membrane coated platinum electrode and proved to perform well as H 2 O 2 reduction catalysts in a strong basic solution (0.1 M NaOH) as CuO nanoparticles play an important role in transferring el...